Thank Me Later!
by Shinra-ex-SOLDIER
Summary: Deleted WhiteRose scenes in Volume 6. If RoosterTeeth won't write it then I sure will. (Best read one chapter after each episode.)
1. Partners Limitless

**Partners Limitless**

* * *

Sometimes it's so easy to forget.

Ever since the Fall of Beacon, Ruby has been steadily forgetting something. She forgets more when nightmares of Pyrrha and Penny plague her at night. She forgets more when they reach massacred villages too late at day. She forgets more when Uncle Qrow takes a hit for her and almost dies.

She keeps forgetting something more and more each day, all the while she religiously remembers each passing horror.

And during a Grimm attack, she remembers everything except the one thing that truly matters.

"Got them! Now who's next?" She taunts after slaying another Manticore Grimm. She sets her sights on what's in front of her, never crossing her mind to even look back.

Not that she needed to.

"Woah!" She feels an impact too close for comfort and sees a Grimm tumble over ice, neither of which existed in the past moments as far as she was aware of. It only shows just how much she isn't aware of her surroundings.

So when she finally checks behind, she finds the one person who always has her back.

"Thank me later!" Her partner teases as she dashes right by her, all smug and casual over the fact that she just saved her from a world of hurting.

That's when she finally remembers.

She remembers that she's forgotten what it's like to have your partner watching your back.

* * *

 _Back in their sleeping compartment, Weiss was greeted by an all too achingly familiar sight._

 _A room too crammed for four people. When she blinks, she almost sees one large window instead of three, a red curtain slashed and restitched draped along it. Below that, she could picture the two tiered bookshelf filled with Blake's books rather than the emptiness that it actually was. She scans the walls where she finds Yang's Achieve Men poster and her own Forever Fall painting if she blinks long enough._

 _Then her eyes finally fall on the two sets of bunk beds. She doesn't even have to blink to imagine it. She's had the image burned behind her retinas, pictured it so many times that she knows she's memorized every minute detail there is. She's seen it too many times as she laid awake in her much too large and much too lonely bed in Atlas, wishing she was somewhere else._

 _Somewhere with precarious ropes barely lifting a makeshift canopy bed that filled most of her nights with dread at the slightest movement from Ruby from above her. And yet ironically, it is those same dreadful nights that she now recalls with fondness._

 _It's a fleeting vision just like those memories of carefree days._

 _"Hey, Weiss!" She hears her partner call for her and she doesn't take for granted the great comfort that comes in the knowledge that this is not just her recalling a memory._

 _"Yes, Ruby—" She turns but only halfway._

 _Poke._

 _She stops when she feels a finger poking her cheek and she thinks she hears the grin before she even sees it._

 _"Turn that frown upside down!" Ruby gives her not the first of the many bright smiles she never seems to run out of._

 _So naturally, Weiss scowls._

 _"Uhh, you do know what upside down looks like, right?" Not to be discouraged, Ruby pokes harder at her cheek._

 _She doesn't remember when the change happened but there was a time that she would have thrown a fit over her partner's antics. That just might be the only time she doesn't want to revisit before the Fall of Beacon. Now she's learned to play along or at least as much as years of instilled dignity allows her to._

 _"Is this really necessary?"_

 _More poking._

 _"Yup."_

 _Even more poking._

 _"It's annoying."_

 _"Pfft! Your frown is annoying."_

 _Weiss tries to swat the hand but she keeps mistiming it._

 _"Will you stop that!" She hisses when she narrowly misses the hand again._

 _"Nope!" To emphasize her point, she continues her prodding, maybe even with more enthusiasm. "I'm trying to find the reset button for your face!"_

 _That brings out a disbelieving eye roll. "And how is pressing the same spot working out for you?"_

 _"I dunno, you tell me~" She replies all too cheekily._

 _This time Ruby pokes the corner of her lips. It's only then that Weiss realizes that she just might have been smiling, even if only for a fraction._

 _Still, that does not excuse the abuse that her face has gone through._

 _"You will pay for that," Weiss threatens and even she can hear just how empty her threat is when she can't stop the pull of her lips._

 _Then Ruby's face lights up._

 _Uh oh. Weiss remembers that face all too well. It's good to know that some things never change. That's her leader's scheming face which could range from ridiculous to dangerously ridiculous ideas._

 _And perhaps the strangest thing of all is that Weiss is more than willing to entertain either._

 _"Only if you catch me!" Ruby suddenly declares._

 _Weiss blinks, surprised. "What?"_

 _Then she feels the lightest prodding on her forehead._

 _"Tag! You're it!" Her leader's grin is smug and challenging. But more importantly, she's already running._

 _She's halfway through the door when Weiss realizes the game that she's been roped into playing._

 _And Weiss only plays to win._

 _"Don't think you can get away that easily!" She summons a black glyph on Ruby's next step, the sudden slowing down of her movement, breaking her momentum and tripping her face first on the floor._

 _"Hey! No fair!" She complains with a pout. She may have matured during the months apart but she looks every bit childish as she sulks. "That's cheating and you know it! You don't see me using my semblance!"_

 _"Alright then. No semblance." Weiss concedes as she slowly approaches her fallen friend. She extends her hand as if in offering. "Starting... now!"_

 _Only to flick her on the forehead._

 _She's already running towards the next train car when she hears Ruby's shout, "Oh, it is on! You are so going to be it!"_

 _"Only if you catch me!" She shouts back with a laugh._

 _When she runs away from Ruby, it feels nothing like when she ran away from Atlas, away from her abusive father, away from isolation. The difference between the two is that this is Ruby she's running away from. That she isn't really running away. With Ruby, she's just running. Running and free to reach places she couldn't cross alone._

 _With her partner watching her back, there's nowhere she wouldn't go._

* * *

"Go!" Ruby shouts as she ushers everyone else to take cover for the incoming tunnel.

She races towards the end of the train car she's standing on, Team JNR already ahead of her. Behind her is the rest of Team RWBY and hot on their backs were the Grimm, chasing them just as desperately as they were running away from them. For all her semblance of speed, she doesn't rush to get inside first. Instead she lets herself lag behind as she hears her heartbeat in her ears along with her panicked thoughts.

She may have forgotten what it's like to have someone watch your back but not anymore.

"Ah!" A blast, a shout, and then comes the fallout.

So when she hears that all too familiar cry, this time Ruby doesn't forget.

An almost fall. An arm caught. A partner saved.

"Thank me later!" This time it's Ruby's turn to return Weiss the favor if one could call it that. But it's not a favor, never with them. It's just them having each other's backs. Something natural yet worked for at the same time.

More importantly, it's something that the two of them have dearly missed.

And as they spiral together into safety, there is no safer place than where they are in now— in each other's arms.

* * *

 **A/N:** There were so many good moments in the first episode! A part of me regrets not tackling the "Don't worry, Weiss! Team RWBY won't leave you for a second!" moment but maybe another chapter I will. There's also the unspoken conversations these two had when they looked at each other during that bee moment, huh wonder what they were thinking. But I thought it was a good start to write about the iconic first scene dialogue and the adorable chase scene in the intro :)

If you enjoyed this one then may I offer you my other work, **Pancakes and Toothpaste**? It's also whiterose (with a dash of renora). The only reason that it's not added here is that I'm keeping this series strictly one chapter per episode.

So yeah, check that out! I promise it's as fluffy as pancakes (and as fresh as toothpaste?)!


	2. Buried

**Buried**

* * *

"Hey, you okay, Weiss?"

Ruby finally asks when it's just the two of them. It's not the first time she's asked the question. She's asked it plenty of times already. She's asked it in searching looks, in reassuring touches, in understanding patience. In just about every other way without words, she's asked her the same question.

It's only now that she fully voices her obvious concern.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Weiss scoffs because how else is she suppose to cope? "I just learned that I went through all that trouble to get out of Atlas and now I'm going back. Of course, I'm okay. Everything's peachy."

It's not the first time she's deflected her answer either.

"If my father finds out about this— which he will no doubt— then he'll paint me as the sniveling child who ran away from home only to come crying back to her father," She vents on, her tone fluctuating between sarcasm and pained resignation. The dry mockery is a poor excuse for a coping mechanism but it's the easiest to fall back to.

It's all she has left at this point.

"And don't even get me started on how he will use it against me as if disowning me wasn't enough for him. Just like everything I've ever worked myself for, it's never enough for him." She lets out a frustrated snarl. If it hasn't really sunk in yet that she's now just an ex-heiress then her father will surely remind her upon her return. "Let's also not forget the fact that—"

Words catch in her throat as something else entirely catches her off guard.

"What do you think you're doing?" She asks, skeptic but not necessarily complaining.

"I needed a hug." Ruby's answer comes out soft, gentle, like how her arms encircle around her with utmost care and tenderness.

Contrary to her words, she hugs her as if she's not asking for a hug. She hugs her as if hugging her back was unquestionable. But it's not a demand. It's never a demand with Ruby, despite her having the authority as leader to demand it, she never does. Not with Weiss. With her, she just leads and she lets her partner make the decision to follow.

It's with this thought out consideration that makes the hug feel so loving that Weiss can't help but fall.

Fall into her arms yet still refusing to fall apart.

" _You_ needed a hug?" Weiss asks half in disbelief and half in amusement because only Ruby could say something so silly and genuinely mean it. The familiarity of it all brings her greater comfort than she thought.

Unconsciously, she lets out a relaxed sigh to which Ruby replies with a happy hum.

"Yeah. I needed a hug," Ruby mumbles against her shoulder, nuzzling against her with affection so warm that it seeps under skin and thaws the ice in her veins. "I needed a hug from you."

When Weiss finally raises her arms to return the embrace, she thinks that she needed this hug too.

"Feeling better?" Ruby asks only after she feels Weiss sink into the embrace enough that her chin feels heavy on her shoulder.

Her answer comes in the way she mumbles something incoherent against her shoulder. Ruby doesn't need to know what she said to understand how she felt. She could feel it underneath her fingertips already after all, the pleasant hum of skin, the relaxed breaths, the warmth she's reciprocating.

Ruby knows that Weiss is feeling better from this hug alone.

But just because she feels better doesn't mean that Ruby will stop at that.

"Weiss, are you okay?"

At first she feels her stiffen at the question, tension winding up her back and thick around her shoulders. She can practically feel her thinking about pulling away from the hug but Ruby doesn't let her. Instead she then starts to rub small soothing circles on her lower back. Her fingertips draw and write until the tension eventually gets overwritten. Until Weiss feels ready enough to answer the question honestly.

In truth, Ruby already knows the answer to that question too.

But she needs Weiss to know that sometimes it's okay that not all answers are good.

"Haven't you asked me that already?" Weiss deflects with a chuckle that doesn't sound quite as happy as it should be. She's stalling, they both know it. They both also know that this won't be enough to deter the determined leader.

"But I still need to hear you answer the question," Ruby implores and even then she isn't demanding from her. She's asking her. She's letting her know that it's safe to fall apart on her.

And Weiss finally lets herself fall apart even if only just a little bit.

"No, Ruby. I am obviously not fine." Her admission comes with a long suffering sigh. Months of pent up frustration on top of years of built up abuse coming down on her in this singular confession.

When she feels her shoulders grow heavy with the weight of it all, Ruby's arms are already there, catching her— and lifting her up.

"It's okay to not be okay, you know."

Ruby holds her tight. She holds her as if she's trying to squeeze out everything wrong that's ever done to Weiss. It's not a solution that will magically fix it all but it is a good hug. A much _needed_ hug. And before Weiss even knows it, she's hugging her back just as desperately if not more. She buries her face, buries her tears, buries her choked up cries on Ruby who quietly accepts all of her.

All broken pieces of her.

"I know," Weiss replies perhaps too quickly for it to be wholehearted. Not even she could believe her own words.

"Do you?" Ruby stresses the question with a gentle squeeze.

Despite the tenderness of the action, Weiss feels an almost painful clench on her heart.

"I'm trying," She replies, just as heartbroken but more honest this time.

When Ruby gives her another tender squeeze, the suffocating coil around her heart loosens.

Weiss is falling apart but Ruby readily embraces her pieces together.

"Then that's more than enough."

 _Enough._ It's funny to hear that word without "never" before it and without the accompanying disdainful voice of her peers, of her so called family, of her own disappointment. All of her life she's been working on being perfect because it's what was expected of her— nothing less. It's only in perfection that she will be "enough".

Just how much had she gone through just to try and amount to that unrealistic measure? Too much.

She never even thought it was attainable or at least it felt like it never will be. She felt like it was something out of a fairytale— unrealistic, out of reach. But her partner tells her otherwise. Her partner tells her she's already there.

She is enough.

She is more than enough.

And Weiss feels this is all _too much_... but in a good way.

"Ruby," She starts and her voice cracks with raw emotion. She doesn't trust herself to speak evenly at this point but she wants to speak up anyways. She wants her partner to hear her words, hoping to have an effect just as powerful as Ruby's words had been to her. "Thank you... For this."

 _For everything,_ the rest of her words go unspoken.

"Aww! You're welcome, Weiss!" Ruby pulls away just so she could flash her an infectious grin. It's super effective as it pulls a lopsided smile from Weiss.

"Dolt." She doesn't even try to hide the fondness behind the insult turned affectionate nickname.

"But I'm _your_ dolt~" Ruby sings all too happily without skipping a beat.

She does however try to hide just how wonderful that sounded to her.

"Whatever." Her smile takes away the air of haughtiness she was going for.

She really has gotten soft, hasn't she? In the back of her mind, she thinks that may not be a bad thing.

"But seriously though, thank you." She does her best to express her gratitude, squeezing back the arms that have been holding her up all this time. It's with the same tenderness and perhaps just a bit of shyness that she confesses, "I do feel better... now that I've finally got that off my chest."

"That's the plan!" Ruby cheers over the success of her possibly spontaneous plan.

"You always do have a plan." Weiss retorts with a chuckle.

And as crazy as those plans sometimes are, one thing for certain is that Weiss will always follow Ruby's plans. It's just a bonus that most of them work out in the end.

They stay close like that for a few beats, so close that they could feel each other's heartbeats, practically counting them with keen focus. Holding onto one another and refusing to let go just yet. Comfortable together and comforting each other. If only they could stay like this forever.

Unsurprisingly, it's Ruby who breaks the silence.

"You know, you do have the choice of not coming back to Atlas with us."

She can't help but snort at the notion. "Yeah, right."

"Weiss." Ruby starts and it startles Weiss at just how much her tone has shifted.

She had laughed it off as a joke but the way Ruby had called her out, told her otherwise. There was something there that Weiss couldn't quite place, something serious. It draws her in until curious blue eyes meet determined silver.

Under Ruby's gaze, Weiss wonders if some related power of silver eyes is to stare right through one's soul. Although some part of her believes that this power has less to do with silver eyes and more to do with Ruby. Ruby and her genuine and caring ways. And right now, she looks at Weiss as if she's all that matters in the world.

"You _do_ have a choice," Ruby reiterates with a tone as unbending as the steel in her eyes. This isn't up for argument. This is a fact. This is what she wants Weiss to never forget. "You _always_ have a choice. Especially with Team RWBY. It's always _your_ choice to make."

All her life someone else has always chosen for her. There's always someone else always choosing "what's best" for her. Never her own decision. Never having a choice.

Except now she does have a choice. Now it's entirely up to her to make the decision.

"Then you should know that I'll choose you anyways."

She doesn't remember her lips moving but she doesn't regret any word that comes out either.

It's true that on this journey to Atlas, she's obligated to follow them by moral responsibility but choosing it makes all the difference.

Choosing her is never a forced upon decision dictated by someone else.

"I'll always choose you."

And when Ruby hugs her tight enough to squeeze out any uncertainty, that's when Weiss knows for sure.

She knows that Ruby would always choose her too.

* * *

 **A/N:** Let my ex-heiress daughter vent about her coerced trip back to her homeland of abuse and let my sniper-scythe daughter comfort her. (I'll save the other way around comforting for another chapter, we'll see...)

Listen, I fucking love the fact that the whole Team RWBY called their partners first and only (except for Ruby, who called out for her sister second) and I promise you, I will write about that snippet after the next episode. Weiss called for Ruby and ONLY Ruby twice! TWICE! God, crwby hit me with that good shit!


	3. Missing You

**Missing You**

* * *

"W-What?"

Ruby expected to be tackled onto cold white snow, punished for the innocent sake of just wanting to know the whole truth.

What she didn't expect was the absence of it.

The absence of everything.

"Weiss?"

She looks back, expecting to see the very person who's always got her back.

Only to see whiteness.

Not white clothes. Not white hair. Not White, the translation of the name she keeps on calling.

Just whiteness.

She wonders if this was what Weiss felt like back in the whiteness of Atlas.

She certainly hoped not.

So much whiteness. So much emptiness.

So much loneliness.

" _Once upon a time, there stood a lonely tower that sheltered a lonely girl..."_

* * *

 _A lonely girl named Weiss was locked away by her cruel father._

 _Weiss was a girl who desired but one thing—_

 _Freedom._

 _But nothing in life was ever free, least of all her. That didn't stop her. Just because it wasn't free didn't mean it wasn't attainable too. If she wanted her freedom then she would need to work for it. And work for it she did._

 _She may be trapped in this cage of a mansion but she was the one who had locked herself in her room. He may have taken away her inheritance, her childhood, her friends— her freedom— but if there's one thing that he has not yet taken away from her, even if only by prideful negligence, it's that he hasn't taken away her spirit._

 _Or at this point, it might as well have been spite. Indomitable spirit turned into vengeful spite._

 _It fuelled her in her training. Denying her freedom was a mistake, a mistake that she would have him regret. Without any distractions, she strove for one goal with frightening focus. Breakout. To achieve that, she needed to be better. And if she couldn't do it alone then she would learn how to summon others to aid her._

 _It was in this isolation that she honed her skills further._

 _Knock. Knock. Knock._

 _She didn't need to ask to know who it was behind the door. After all, who else could it be? Neither her present family could be bothered to personally visit her, a sentiment that she returned in spades. However, the same could not be said about her current visitor._

 _So when she opened the door, she smiled to greet the familiar friend._

" _Perhaps a break is in schedule. Might I suggest a hot cup of coffee? It can get awfully chilly in here." Klein offered a steaming cup with caring light brown eyes._

" _Thank you, Klein. You have impeccable timing as always," Weiss complimented him, gingerly taking the cup as well as a slow sip. She hummed in appreciation. "And excellent tastes as well."_

" _It's my pride and joy to hear your praise." Instead of cheeks flushing, it's his eyes that turn pink and bashful. "How goes the training, Miss?"_

 _Her smile faltered ever so slightly. "Slow if I must admit. It's difficult enough to train by myself but to do so within the confines of the mansion is a bit… stifling for growth." But her determination has yet to be shaken. "Nevertheless, I am improving. It's slower than I would have liked but that just means I'll have to work myself harder."_

" _That's the spirit! I'm sure that by the end of the week, you'll be so strong that you just might be able to squeeze the goodness out of him—" He cajoled with mischievous red eyes. Then in an almost conspiring manner, he leaned in and whispered, "If there is any goodness in him. If not then at least you had fun!"_

" _Klein!" She didn't argue with him though. Instead she just laughed alongside him. "I didn't think you had it in you to condone violence."_

" _It doesn't count as long as I turn the other cheek?" He weaseled his way out with that poor excuse and dopey mint green eyes._

 _They share another round of laughter. It's always a good laugh when it's at the expense of her father. The coffee has gotten colder in those few precious seconds but Weiss couldn't find it in herself to care._

 _After all, she's already warmer in ways that matter._

" _If you would entertain this old butler, there are matters I wish you to indulge me with." Klein started, his eyes were now back to warm light brown. "Perhaps you need something more than coffee to keep you warm."_

" _What would you suggest?" She asked, more than willing to listen to the only man who truly wanted what was best for her._

" _I'm glad you asked!" His eyes flashed yellow with joy. "I was cleaning one of the less visited rooms when I stumbled upon this..." With great flourish, he pulled out the last thing she'd expected to see._

 _Red, a red scarf._

" _I don't suppose you might want to put it to good use," He insisted, gingerly taking her hands and placing the garment in her grasp._

 _For a moment that seemed to stretch into a lifetime, Weiss was silent._

" _Klein… Where did you get this?" She asked half in disbelief and half in awe. The red scarf lay loose in her hands almost as if she was afraid that grasping it would unravel the threads. Or perhaps a part of her was afraid that she herself would unravel rather than the scarf._

 _Not just any red scarf but her grandfather's red scarf._

" _Oh, just in a room. I found this poor neglected soul in one of the drawers," He nonchalantly explained as if the room was somewhat ordinary._

 _And in a way it was but in another way it wasn't._

" _Achoo!" He sneezed, his eyes taking on light blue. His mustache comically twitched as he continued, "It was awfully dusty in there too."_

 _Maybe Klein had said something in addition to that but Weiss didn't hear him anymore._

 _Instead she heard the laughter of a child frolicking inside a mansion similar to this one but from a different time, a much warmer mansion and a much happier time. She saw the awe of a child growing up to stories about her grandfather and about the true greatness that her family name began with. She recalled the dream of a child who wanted to become the perfect daughter so as to continue that family legacy._

 _She used to be that child but she had grown up too soon and yet not enough at the same time._

 _Now rather than continue the family legacy, she wanted to restore it to the righteous glory it once was._

 _It was with this resolution that she took upon the scarf— the responsibility._

 _There's something freeing in the way the scarf wraps around her neck. This was her grandfather's scarf. This was something distinctively Schnee. And yet rather than the strangling feeling around her throat whenever her father dangled the family name to spite her, it was a comforting feeling that rested across her shoulders._

 _Rather than heavy with burden, she felt lighter with blessing. Protected._

" _Nothing like something comfortable to help me sleep at night." Klein's voice broke through her stupor, soft lavender eyes watched her knowingly._

 _It was as if color was brought back into her life._

 _Red._

 _Red like going back to her roots. Red like going back home— her true home. Red like roses._

 _Red like Ruby Rose._

" _Thank you, Klein. I love it," She confessed softly as if still caught in a spell. Unbeknownst to her that a smile graced upon her lips as her fingers traced familiar memories of a certain someone who was attached to a different red garment. "I'll be sure to wear it when I'm able."_

 _Because Father forbid that she wears anything that isn't white or blue._

 _It's a good thing that she doesn't take orders from her father anymore._

" _I always did enjoy seeing you with a splash of color." His eyes glowed yellow with mirth. "Red especially brings out your smile, Little Snowflake."_

" _Red is a lovely color," Weiss admitted, her hands clutching the scarf just a bit tighter as if trying to hold onto something else— onto someone else._

 _Someone with a billowing cloak of a matching color._

 _And though she may be alone for now, the redness she wears makes her feel just a bit less lonely._

* * *

 _She almost forgot how lonely she used to be._

 _Almost._

 _Ruby tried not to dwell on it for long. She tried not to think about those months spent with the company of Team JNR— never alone yet it was precisely because she was never alone that she felt so utterly lonely._

 _It's not that she didn't want to be with Team JNR. She's grateful for them. She knew that without them then she would have been truly alone and not just lonely. But they could never take the place of her missing teammates._

 _She had missed them so much._

 _But that's all in the past, she thought. What's important was that Team RWBY was reunited now! So everything should be better!_

 _Except some things still weren't okay._

 _And she hoped that not all things missing were lost forever._

 _For even though Team RWBY was finally back together, they were on the verge of falling apart all over again._

 _Ruby tried not to see the cracks. She tried not to measure the rift between Blake and Yang. She tried not to catch the cautious looks of Yang and Weiss whenever Ozpin talked. She tried not to stare too long in the mirror and see just how broken they're supposed leader truly was._

 _She knew she had to fix the cracks but for now, she took comfort in the fact that they were still together. Small victories._

 _She tried not to think that maybe small victories are all they're going to get._

 _"Remnant to Ruby." A voice from behind her interrupted her thoughts._

 _"Weiss!" She whirled around to greet her partner who had somehow snuck up on her. She must have been really out of it if the loudest heels could ambush her._

 _"Finally, I've been trying to get your attention." Weiss crossed her arms across her chest in what was supposed to be an impatient gesture except it only served to draw in the eyes to something else in particular, something that wasn't there before._

 _Red._

 _Red wrapped around the slender neck of her partner, flowing down past her chest._

 _Red like roses. Red like how her cheeks are now at the familiar vision of her partner._

 _Red, the color that warms._

 _"Combat scarf!" Ruby squealed at the sight and knew that she just had to get her hands on it. She may have also tugged the scarf harder in her excitement._

 _"Hey! Careful! I'm wearing that!" Weiss chastised with a scowl. Still, she didn't pull the scarf away from her partner, opting instead to adjust its wrap loose around her neck._

 _"Sorry!" Ruby sheepishly apologized. Her fingers dug into the scarf with delicate care as if she was tugging heartstrings rather than just thread. "It's just—" She started with a voice just as soft as her touch. However, where that sentence led, not even she knew._

 _Red looks good on Weiss? Of course it would, this was Weiss! Anything would look good on her. She's that pretty! But..._

 _Why red?_

 _Red didn't fit with Weiss' color theme. It was always blue and white with her. White because it's a family thing or maybe it was an Atlas thing? It's just that white was her thing. And Ruby knew that Weiss' favorite color was blue so that explained that._

 _But red?_

 _Red was_ her _color._

 _And if Weiss was wearing her color then..._

 _"Now we match!" Ruby all too happily declared, her own cloak swayed behind her as if it too approved. "Neck warmer partners!"_

 _"Is that the best you can come up with?" Weiss said with a roll of her eyes. What she didn't say however was her objection to the shared title, if she objected at all._

 _Ruby hummed. "Oh, but I don't have anything else to match with your color theme."_

 _She figured that it was only fair that she put in the effort too. So she scanned around for something to fix the color imbalance. Something white or something blue. Now that she was actually trying to look for them, she realized that it was a trickier task than she thought._

 _Then again, Ruby wasn't exactly in a wardrobe or a store and more like she's in a rented house in its living room. She returned her gaze to the walking blue and white person in a last ditch effort for inspiration._

 _Weiss made it look so easy to find clothes and accessories in those colors. Blue dress, blue heels, blue earrings. White sash, white frills, white hair... Oh. That's it!_

 _Her hands finally let go of the scarf—_

 _Only to hold Weiss' hand instead._

 _"Just what do you think you're doing?" Weiss said in a carefully even voice._

 _"Holding your hand, duh." Ruby held their joined hands high just to prove her obvious point._

 _"And what prompted this, may I ask?"_

 _"Well since you went and got red on you, I was thinking if I could get something blue or white on me."_

 _"Oh. You weren't joking about the whole matching thing?" Weiss asked in disbelief and Ruby nodded all too eagerly which further raised her suspicions. "Again, how did you arrive to the conclusion of holding my hand?"_

 _"That's easy! See you've got the whitest skin! Like wow! I know you have the softest skin but you also have skin as white as snow!" Ruby explained it so simply that her innocence made it hard to take the praise as flattery._

 _Not that it would prevent the coloring of Weiss cheeks._

 _"Now that I think about it, is that healthy? Do you need to get more sun, Weiss?" Oblivious as Ruby was, sometimes she also spoke too honestly and in a less flattering way._

 _"Excuse you I am the picture of perfect health!" Weiss protested with a huff. This time it was her who raised their hands higher._

 _Until Ruby had no other choice but to look at her own sleeve._

 _"Also, in case your eyes missed it, you already have white in your outfit."_

 _Her own white sleeve from her own white blouse._

 _"Oh, yeah..." Ruby stared at her own white sleeve then back up to the white hand she was holding. Her gaze lingered on the latter and although she was seeing white, she couldn't help but think of red too._

 _Of red on white._

 _There was something reassuring in the way that Weiss carried red on herself._

 _Of white on red._

 _Reassuring in the same way that Ruby felt as she held her hand._

 _They fit each other so easily that it was just as easy to forget that there was a painfully long time wherein they couldn't even reach each other._

 _She missed this. She missed_ her _._

 _Now reunited, she never wanted to let go._

 _"I'm keeping this anyways!" Ruby's declaration came with a squeeze of their hands. A wish just as much as it is a promise._

 _"I'd like to see you try." Weiss may have sounded smug but it was the tenderness in her eyes that gave her away. She squeezed back._

 _That's right. Her team was back together. She didn't have to do this alone._

 _And with her partner by her side, she would never be lonely again._

 _"Don't you worry, Weiss! Nothing's gonna separate us red and white!"_

* * *

White.

Weiss doesn't remember blinking but when she comes to, all she sees is white.

White like the cold and emptiness of Atlas. White like the bleach of her family's legacy. White like everything else that's under the palm of her abusive father.

White like isolation.

"Ruby!"

She calls out, her voice cracking into panic when it echoes but no one answers back. She calls for the first person that comes to her mind. She calls for her partner, her leader, her best friend.

She calls for the only person who has never failed to bring color into her life.

"Ruby?"

But there is no familiar red tipped hair. No telltale crimson cloak. No shining silver eyes. No pink cheeks stretched with a smile.

No Ruby.

And for the first time in a long while, Weiss finds herself back at the beginning.

Alone.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sorry about the chapter delay. I had a draft early on but I accidentally left it someplace that I couldn't get back to these past two days. So to make up for it, this is a bit longer. I promise to post the next one on schedule.

Okay so I know Ruby called for Yang too and I tried to keep it that way but it breaks momentum so I purposely left out that detail. Of course I am keeping the fact that Weiss calls for Ruby TWICE. I will never get over that.

So the new ep, right? Wowsers. That's a LOT to take in. Just gonna add that to the Ruby breakdown folder. Let's also not overlook the minor detail that Weiss' family legacy is built upon harvesting the remains of past magically abled people. (Kudos to those fics who got the "fossil fuel" theory correct.) So yeah, expect the next chapter here to be a doozy too!


	4. So This Is It

**So This Is It**

* * *

 _Just keep moving._

 _That's what Ruby kept telling herself._

 _They had to keep moving forward. She had to keep moving forward._

 _She had to keep the team together. She had to keep herself together._

 _With her team back, she has to step up as their leader._

 _So she pushed down. She pushed down everything that everyone else was thinking of. She pushed down the betrayal, the hurt, the hopelessness— she pushed down it all as much as she could and struggled to keep herself standing._

 _Then push became shove. Then shove became shovel._

 _And now with heartbreaking desperation, she was burying it all deep down. She had to. Because if she didn't then these things would just keep piling up._

 _Faster than the heavy snowfall they're in and just as endless, they've been piling up for Ruby._

 _She couldn't afford to be buried by it all because she was a leader. She had the responsibility not to fall apart when everyone else was barely keeping it together too. Should she fall then others would soon follow._

 _Fall down like how Beacon did. Fall apart like how Penny did. Fall away like how Pyrrha did._

 _She didn't want anyone else to fall into the same fate. Not again._

Please not again.

 _So she does what she has to do. She steps up as their leader._

 _She keeps them moving forward. She tries to keep herself moving forward._

 _She keeps the team together. She tries to keep herself together._

 _All the while she keeps on burying all these feelings deeper, unaware that she's digging herself deeper in the process. It's only a matter of time before the walls cave in and bury her in a grave of her own doing._

 _But until then Ruby just keeps moving._

 _This isn't the end just yet._

* * *

So this was it then?

This was what everything they've been doing has been amounting to.

Nothing.

They were supposed to be Remnant's last hope or at least they thought they were. In truth, there was no hope to begin with. All this time they've been signed up for a war they couldn't possibly win. They've made sacrifices all throughout, some of their own choices, and many more forced upon them in cruel fate.

For what?

It's true that a large part of Weiss wanted to escape that fortress called her home just so she could return to her true home. But if yearning was all it took then she would have booked it from the start. No, there was a tipping point. And a crucial part of that tipping point was that she thought that something bigger than her family drama was happening. She thought that the world needed saving and that she could help save the world.

Then it turns out that the world as she knew it was only but a remnant of what it once was.

And that behind the great evil they were supposed to defeat was a greater evil that couldn't be destroyed.

All of their efforts seemed so pointless now in hindsight. No matter how much they'd struggle, it wouldn't change a thing. The world would keep on turning until Salem wanted it to. She was no god but she was the closest thing to one. Not only could she summon Grimm, she also had all of the magic of the past. And most importantly, Salem would always be out there.

A being of infinite life and with a desire of pure destruction.

Her shoulders shudder. Whether it was at the frigid thought or at the sheer cold, she was too numb to tell.

Without conscious thought, her hand reaches up to adjust her scarf—

Only to grasp at cold air.

It's only then that Weiss realizes the absence of the comforting warm material. It hasn't even been that long since she'd last worn it but watching someone else's lifetime makes it feel like an eternity without it. The mere thought of a lifetime without red and everything that came with it, wraps around her throat, tightly holding back a sob.

The strangeness of it is that this makes her want to cry more than the despondent worldly revelation.

Everything is so cold and so white back in Atlas, back in the void, back here on this unmarked trail to who knows where.

She'd escape from one frozen hellscape only to fall into another. There was no escaping this whiteness, is there? It's just like this war against Salem. All her efforts would be in vain since apparently this was a one-sided battle and she would never be on the winning side. And her throat tightens further at the thought which only reminds her of the comfortable wrap of her still missing garment.

She just wanted her scarf back. She just wanted a little bit of color in her life. She just wanted to blend some red with the coldness of white. Was that too much to ask? She's starting to believe that white and everything that came with it, is all that she'll ever see for her whole life.

Until red, the color that warms, returns to her.

"Guess what I found." Ruby's voice flutters in as soon as her hands leave the scarf she just wrapped around Weiss' neck. Too soon. Her hands leave too soon as if her touch invites chill when it was actually the opposite.

Still, her concern is warm enough.

"You looked cold."

 _Then hold me_ , Weiss almost says.

But she doesn't. She doesn't ask Ruby to. And the only reason that she hesitates upon asking is because Ruby hasn't offered yet. Ruby who has always been so affectionate and physical about it, has barely touched her at all throughout this exchange. It's Ruby who is hesitant. Distant. Weiss could see her partner closing in on herself, burying her hunched shoulders underneath her cloak.

It was worrying.

"Hey, Ruby?"

They both need this. The support. The comfort. Each other.

"Yes, Weiss?"

She takes a tentative step forward.

And it breaks her heart when Ruby steps away on reflex.

Weiss could tell that Ruby too realized the obvious movement but neither comments. They're both too fragile and too hesitant to test waters despite said waters having already been frozen by the existential dread of whatever they saw.

Every fiber of her being is screaming at her to do anything but stand still. She wants to hold her, reassure her like the many time her partner's done the same for her. But there was no use for reassurance in their situation, only acceptance in their own time. Ruby was still processing just like the rest of them. Maybe Ruby wanted her company too but maybe her leader was hesitating on whether or not that's what she needed right now.

At least that would have been a consoling thought for the distance.

So even though Weiss wanted to so badly hold Ruby's hand, instead she settles to grasp her scarf where her partner's touch had lingered before, her warmth already long gone and missed dearly.

They need each other. But they also need space. For now.

"Thanks."

That's all she allows herself to tell her.

When Ruby smiles back, it doesn't quite reach her eyes.

 _No problem_ , Ruby almost answers or at least Weiss surmises that's what she would have said if she spoke after she opened her mouth. But she sees in her partner's eyes, the moment that she realized just how untruthful that statement would be. Her mouth hangs agape.

"You're welcome," Ruby says instead.

 _I'm not okay_ , is what Weiss heard unspoken.

And truth be told, none of them are.

But Weiss could see how Ruby is still trying. She could see how even though she's been deceived just like the rest of them, she doesn't drop her responsibilities not even for a second. She still puts the needs of others before her. She's still leading. Now with Ozpin gone and with whatever hope they had for a shot at a good future, they were drifting aimlessly.

And Ruby was trying so hard to keep them from at least drifting away.

She's trying so damn hard that it hurts to watch her.

Weiss promised that she would be the best teammate Ruby will ever have and she plans on keeping her word. Sometimes being the best partner means knowing when to give them space.

But just because they're not talking now doesn't mean that they won't talk later. And they will. Weiss will make sure of it. As her partner and best friend, she knows that Ruby will need to talk to someone about this eventually. Even if that means practically dragging her stubborn leader out of her cloak then so be it. But for now she just hopes that her presence would be enough.

When Ruby starts moving forward, Weiss follows closely, watching her back.

Ready to catch her should she fall apart.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello again! In case you missed it, the previous chapter was posted two days late. Again, sorry about that. But that was an accident so rest assured that all of the following chapters will be posted on schedule as always. Thanks again and hope you're enjoying these!

Am I the only one confused over Weiss missing her scarf since the fight scene on the first episode then now she wears it after the flashback? I don't understand? Is this an animation mistake? Or does she purposely remove it during battle (I hope not)? I am so bothered.

So the episode was rather short... The (very tense) calm before the storm. I had to be a bit creative with this chapter since yikes everyone is just too high strung (for understandable reasons). As much as I wanted a bit of processing between Ruby and Weiss about the revelations, it felt like too soon and not enough privacy for it. Hopefully in the next chapter they talk it out. Maybe.


	5. Storming Inside

**Storming Inside**

* * *

Finally they were someplace safe.

It has been a tiring journey. Between walking out in a snowstorm and still dealing with the aftermath of that emotional maelstrom, they were all exhausted. Weiss especially. Despite being raised on Atlas' frozen climate, let it be known that she was also raised in the comforts of her much warmed home. Even Ice Queens get cold too.

She was especially cold _and_ tired.

At this point she'll take any abandoned house as long as she could finally get some much needed warmth and rest.

So it was with this comforting thought that she started her search. She thought of the satisfying warmth of a fire and the soothing feel of blankets. She thought that maybe this won't fix all their problems but it's at least one less problem for them to deal with. She thought of how despite everything at least she's here with her team even though everyone's lost on where to go from here.

After today's truth bomb, she didn't think that anything else could go wrong.

 _She heard the scream before she knew it was hers._

* * *

Weiss doesn't remember how she got here.

She doesn't remember standing up or if someone pulled her up. She doesn't remember taking those shaky steps down the stairs. She doesn't remember sitting in front of the fireplace or if her legs just gave away.

She doesn't remember ever looking away from what should have been a safe place but turned out to be a literal deathbed.

Weiss has never seen a corpse in her life, not this way. Nothing could have ever prepared her for walking into a bedroom— the safest space in a home— and see how death has invaded underneath the bed sheets. It was just so _wrong_.

No fire nor blanket could thaw the chill in her bones.

She was just so cold and so tired.

Everything about this place screamed wrong and yet against all the signs, they were still going to stay here. They had no choice. It was either possibly die here the same way those corpses went or definitely die out there as corpses too, just frozen. Neither was a pleasant option but it was grudgingly obvious where they had a chance that the other wasn't a choice anymore.

She knew they didn't have a choice here.

Just like how they didn't have a choice in saving the world. Just like how she didn't have a choice in becoming a Schnee. Just like how she didn't have a choice in Atlas.

Just like everything in her life, she didn't have a choice and she was just so _tired_.

She's so tired but not even exhaustion could stop the tremors wrecking her body. She couldn't even tell whether she was shaking from the cold or from fear, probably a cruel mix of both. Except now she feels more of the latter than just the superficial chill.

She didn't feel safe here. She wanted to go someplace, any place but here, yet again she was painfully aware that she didn't have choice. She could only bear with it and make do with what she had. There's got to be somewhere safe even in the most terrifying of places, isn't there? She could only hope so.

But maybe safety isn't in a place but rather in a person.

And right now Weiss is slowly making her way towards the person whom she feels safest with, second only to Winter and with every passing struggle she comes closer to ranking first.

She needs the comfort. If she would be allowed one moment to be selfish then please let it be this. Please, just let her have this. She needs the comfort and she wants no one else to comfort her but her missing partner.

However when she sees Ruby, the closest person who makes her feel the safest and who has kept her safe ever since they've been partners— Weiss hesitates.

She just stands there.

Not even Weiss understands where this hesitation came from. She's so tired and she just wants a hug more than anything but now that she's already here and with the person who will provide just that right in front of her, she hesitates. She can't seem to find the strength to ask for something so small and so simple as a hug.

Thankfully, Ruby notices her. She always has.

Silver has never looked as warm as in her eyes.

"Food always makes me feel better heh," Ruby offers with a chuckle that's more strained than the tension strung among all of them. "Just saying." She shrugs, another attempt to lighten the uneasy mood.

It's a poor attempt to cheer her up but an attempt that doesn't go unappreciated. It's just Ruby's way of comforting others.

"Right." Still, Weiss couldn't meet her attempt with the same strained optimism nor could she find the effort to meet her eyes.

She feels too tired to even lift her gaze.

But Ruby's trying and Weiss wants to try too. Besides, there's no one else she'd rather be with right now. _Especially_ now.

So despite how heavy her body feels, she somehow lifts one foot after another without them dragging too much. She walks towards her partner already leading the way. She doubts that food would cheer her up but it should be a welcome distraction or so she hopes it would be enough.

She's so lost in her head that she doesn't even notice when her leader has suddenly stopped. She doesn't even register her twist her body until it gently collides with her own. The comforting scent of roses fills the air she breathes and she swallows as if she's been starved of such sweet air for months.

And suddenly the thick blanket she's been carrying on her shoulders feel obtrusive. Unnecessary. She shrugs it off as if it was a hindrance and it falls with a dull thud that she couldn't seem to care about.

What matters more are the strong arms now wrapped around her shoulders, firm enough to be protective and also tender enough to convey concern. It's the hug she never explicitly asked for yet she so desperately needed.

She needed this so badly that she doesn't even try to hide her tears anymore.

She doesn't even realize how tightly she was hugging back, grasping onto her partner as if she was the only safe haven here in this house pretending to be a home.

"Sorry you had to see that," Ruby murmurs on the top of Weiss' crown of hair.

Weiss couldn't even bring herself to feel indignant at how taller than her Ruby is now because she has never felt so _small_ than in this moment.

Then she feels something else that's just as warm wrapped around her. It's only when she feels something light and soft brush against her lower back that she figures out what it is. Her own hands clutch tighter on the part where her fingertips rest and a content sigh escapes her lips.

How could a flimsy cape offer more warmth than that discarded thick blanket?

She already knows why and she's hugging the answer to that.

"Why are you apologizing? It's not even your fault," Weiss whispers just as softly and with the same concern Ruby has shown her before.

She doesn't see it because she doesn't want to pull away just yet but she does hear it instead. She hears Ruby smile that sad and trying smile.

The kind of smile that sounds just on the verge of falling apart.

"Maybe I should have gone with you."

Although Weiss could hear the guilt in Ruby's voice, she was having none of that.

"Ruby, what happened wasn't your fault. No one could have expected what we saw," She scoffs at first but there is no condescending intent. Instead her voice shifts to tender undertones, "I appreciate your sentiment but don't beat yourself up over something you couldn't control."

 _Don't try to shoulder all of this on your own._

"I know you want to protect everyone but you can't hold yourself responsible for everything."

What followed after was silence, silence that Weiss hoped Ruby used to process her words. Whether Ruby agreed with that or not, she didn't say.

Ruby has never had the greatest defense against attacks so it isn't surprising when she dodges instead.

"I just wish you hadn't seen that."

And Weiss is too tired to argue her point right now so she leaves it at that. She settles in the warm embrace instead and feels her chills thaw if only a little.

"Me too."

Weiss is tired but she's safe with Ruby right now and that's something to hold onto.

* * *

 _"Okay then, let's do something."_

She has to do something.

Ruby has to do something or else they'll be doing nothing. Doing nothing means more time. More time leads to more thinking. More thinking becomes negative thinking. Negative thinking brings about hurt, doubt, hopelessness, and everything else that she'd rather not have them thinking.

She has to do something or else they'll be reduced to nothing.

She has to do something because she doesn't want to stop and think about how everything they've done and anything else they'll do after will ultimately amount to nothing.

She was a leader. She had to at least lead them somewhere in some way no matter how lost she was too.

"There."

The room lights up and in a way that banishes Ruby's dark thoughts into the shadows of her mind.

Only for them to resurface once she sees the room for what it is.

"On second thought, maybe we should keep this room closed."

"Huh?" Weiss looks at her, confused.

Wherein Weiss sees a recreational room, Ruby sees an unhealthy coping mechanism and then some more.

"I'm just—"

 _I'm just really worried about my uncle who has dedicated his life to the person who gave him purpose and acceptance only to find out it was a relationship built upon lies and deceit._

 _I'm just afraid of losing another parental figure especially the one I look up to the most after my mom and who has been the person who raised me for a while when my dad was still mourning over mom._

 _I'm just as lost as everyone else but I try not to show it since someone has to keep hoping and I don't want everyone to give up on hope._

 _I'm just doubting the entire purpose of this mission now I know the end goal is unachievable but I don't really know what else we're supposed to do so we have to do it still._

 _I'm just concerned on how everyone is dealing with this that I have to set aside my feelings about all of this and put others' priority before my own._

 _I'm just trying not to fall apart even though it's so hard because I don't want everyone to worry about me when there are more important things to do._

 _I'm just stepping up to be the leader because someone has to keep it together when everyone else is falling apart._

 _I'm just supposed to be the strong reliable leader and yet I feel like I'm barely keeping everyone together and much less myself._

 _I'm just not o—_

"...Not sure how well my uncle is taking all of this."

Ruby lets that sentence hang and leaves the rest of her struggles unvoiced.

Her Uncle Qrow may bury himself in bottles of alcohol but Ruby buries herself with feelings she bottles up instead.

In a way, they're family like that.

"Oh."

The air becomes a bit heavier with that declaration but it's not like it wasn't already heavy to begin with. And just as expected, it's Ruby who tries to lighten things up— her own coping mechanism.

"Come on, we'll never get to Atlas on an empty stomach."

Little did Ruby know that she's too busy trying to look forward that she forgets to look back.

She misses the way Weiss looks at her retreating cloak. She misses how Weiss doesn't return her enthusiasm at the prospect of their journey. She misses the doubt that keeps her from moving onward, hesitating on following her.

And so Ruby moves forward because she has to.

All the while she doesn't see just how truly tired Weiss is too.

* * *

 **A/N:** First of all, I have so many feelings so apologies about long author's note. Second, accept this longer than usual chapter as an apology. Moving on...

I was tempted to write about these two having parental figures with drinking problems but then I realized that I was writing the scene with Ruby's POV and as far as I remember, Weiss hasn't opened up to her yet about her mom. Missed opportunity right there but could you imagine what Weiss must be thinking? Qrow isn't on the deep end YET but he's getting there. And Weiss has seen how that plays out. Imagine her thinking how Ruby will take it if it happens to her too. These two need hugs I swear.

Also, excuse me but WHAT THE FUCK RT. STOP HURTING WEISS LIKE THIS. HASN'T SHE BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH? GIVE THE GIRL A HUG. JUST GIVE HER A DAMN HUG PLEASE.

You know what? Do you know just how much I've been anticipating what I should write for this chapter? I had drafts for sharing the cloak, sharing the bed, sharing the existential crisis. But then the episode aired and now I'm... Oof.

 _On a side note, her scarf went missing again and this time I'm honestly confused._ RT please just keep the scarf and stop playing with my feelings.

There's so much I love about this week's episode! But since this is a whiterose fic, I'll keep my sharing strictly about them. First of all, even though Weiss is still shaken from what she saw, she was still concerned enough about Ruby and checks up on her. I'M LIVING FOR THAT SUPPORTIVE CONTENT. Then there's Ruby who tries to comfort Weiss in the only way she knows how- being positive, cheering her up. AGAIN WITH THE BEST PARTNERS CONTENT MMMMMMMMMM YES

Also, I am loving the direction so far. It looks like we won't just get a breakdown, we just might get a nightmare sequence! *crosses fingers* The part of me who loves the girls is concerned for their safety but the writer part of me is excited because I just love writing nightmare sequences. Here's to hoping that it will at least be worth it!

Update: If you have watched the newest episode feel free to scream in the reviews with me thanks

 **P.S. GET READY FOR A LONG CHAPTER NEXT WEEK I AM LIVING!**


	6. Don't Leave Me Alone

**Don't Leave Me Alone**

 **A/N:** _Heya! If you're interested, please read **Not a Fairy Tale Dream** for the nightmare sequence that's supposed to be at the beginning!_

* * *

Ruby wakes up with her scream still choking in her throat.

Fragments of her dream still linger underneath her eyelids. She doesn't dare blink. With eyes wide and terror-stricken, she looks around, frantic, expecting to see the same horrors chasing her, surrounding her.

Only to find out that she is back in one of the houses at Brunswick. Safe.

Or at least as safe as she could possibly be. Is anywhere safe anymore?

Eventually the nightmare fades away until all that's left is exhaustion. She can't remember what she saw that shook her so much but she remembers what she felt. What she still feels.

She feels it in the way her heart beats as if she was being chased, in the way her eyes keep searching for something just lurking in the corner of her vision, in the way her whole body winds up like a coil ready to spring into action.

The nightmare may be forgotten but the feeling never truly goes away.

In the quiet of the morning there are no terrified shrieks, only the out of pace beating of her heart and her own stifled scream.

It's not her first nightmare and it won't certainly be her last.

And just like always she wills herself to wake up. She forces herself to move.

She has to keep moving.

She moves almost mechanically. Get up. Get herself together. Get everyone else up.

She picks up a bottle that's rolled away on the floor. Empty. Which isn't the same feeling she gets in chest when she sees her uncle wallow in alcohol, drowning himself and his issues like it's the only way he knows how to cope.

"Uncle Qrow. Come on... Wake up." She shakes him by the shoulder.

"Leave me alone..." He grumbles and refuses to wake up.

"Hngh, we overslept." She shakes him harder. He mumbles something incoherent. It doesn't matter what he said, it's a rejection all the same as he pushes her away.

He keeps pushing other people away.

She hates this. She hates seeing her uncle like this, her hero breaking down like this. She hates how he keeps drinking bottle after bottle as if they didn't need him sober.

She hates it all so much that she is filled to the brim with it. Her own bottle of emotions threatening to spill.

She stares at the bottle until she is so mad that it shakes—

Until it breaks.

"...Hngh? What?" Her uncle finally wakes up.

And sees the damage that's been done.

"Oh, right... Sunrise." He takes in ragged breaths. The same shaky breaths that Ruby had when she woke up. And all of a sudden, she felt all that anger ebb away.

Until all that's left is understanding... and sadness at what she understood.

She hates seeing him hurt. She hates that he thinks he's alone in this. She hates how he's convinced himself that he can't open up to them.

For as much as Ruby hates this, she knows that Uncle Qrow hates this more.

"You know, you can talk to me about stuff. Yang too." She offers along with the tender embrace.

"Let's just get out of here." He pats her back. Neither accepting her offer nor returning the embrace.

This too is another bottle.

Maybe if the circumstances were different, they would have opened up that bottle. Just maybe. Hopefully.

But for now they don't. They're too tired to deal with anything really.

And so they just keep themselves in bottles.

* * *

Weiss is the last one to get up and by then everyone else is out of the room except for Ruby who is still trying to wake her up.

"Weiss, come oooooon." She pulls off the blanket and yes, Weiss looks cute when she curls up just a bit but she looks more annoying the longer she stays asleep. "Don't make me pull out the whistle."

The threat has Weiss shoot up so fast, it made Ruby wonder if she was even asleep in the first place.

"Dont. You. _Dare._ " She glares at her with squinted eyes. Her tone matched her scowl, truly she was awake now that she wore her signature scowl.

"Good morning to you too." Ruby starts to fold the blanket, unaffected and used to morning grouch Weiss.

"Ugh, hardly." She drops her glare in favor of rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

It's then that Ruby notices the eyebags that weren't there yesterday.

"How was your sleep?" She asks and she tries not to think of her own disturbed sleep. This isn't about her right now. This is about Weiss first. "You don't look so good."

"Excuse you, I never look anything less than—" She yawns. "...Elegant."

"Yeah, you're always pretty," Ruby answers without missing a beat and without noticing the stutter she did to Weiss. Maybe if she wasn't so tired, she would have noticed her partner's cheeks color just a bit redder. "But you look _pretty_ tired."

"T-That's because I _am_ tired." She flinches slightly at her own stammer, still flustered. But it doesn't last long since the exhaustion kicks in now that she mentioned it. "I'm really _really_ tired."

"Well it's a good thing that we're leaving already," She offers with a small smile and a hand on her shoulder. "You can rest more on the ride to Argus, okay?"

For a moment, there is silence. Hesitation. Weiss has the same pensive look she had on yesterday. She looks like she has something to say.

"Help me put on my scarf?"

Ruby wonders if that's what she really wanted to ask but she doesn't ask otherwise.

"Sure. Where'd you put it?" She says instead, her eyes already scanning the room for the red garment.

"On top of my suitcase by the couch." Weiss starts to comb her hair with her fingers in an effort to fix her hair without a comb. In the back of Ruby's mind she wonders why her partner even bothers when she looks beautiful already.

She spots the scarf neatly folded because of course Weiss has to be neat and organized about everything. When she picks it up, she's somewhat surprised at the slight weight of it. It always felt as if it weighed nothing whenever she played with the ends while Weiss was wearing it which earned her a light scolding by the way.

"So... uhhh?" Ruby awkwardly fiddles with the cloth between her fingers, unsure on what to do next.

"Well?" Weiss raises an eyebrow at her expectantly. "Get on with it. It's not that hard."

If it's not that hard then why was she the one doing this and not her instead?

There's a comment about how this isn't Atlas and how she doesn't have servants here to pick up her slack but Ruby holds her tongue. That was too soon and too mean even for her. She must be tired too.

So she swallowed her grumblings and did what she was told. She carefully wraps the scarf around Weiss' neck. And then she wraps it a second time. She thinks that maybe this is the part where she's supposed to tie a knot? She doesn't know. She ties the knot anyways. Then she uhh, she wraps it around for good measure. That should do it.

Yep, as expected. It doesn't look right.

"You're doing it wrong." Weiss' hands suddenly hold hers to stop her from doing a second knot. Her scowl looks ten times more disappointed up close. Huh, she never realized they were this close all this time. And of course she could feel the judgement full force this close.

"What did you expect? How am I supposed to know how to do it right?" Ruby defends herself with a pout.

"You have your own garment." Her eyes lock on her signature red garment.

"Why do you think my cloak is a clip-on?" She rolls her shoulder just to show her point.

Point taken, Weiss lets out a long sigh.

"This is how you do it. _Watch._ " She orders and before Ruby has any chance to say otherwise— not that she would— she begins to redo the wrapping.

With her hands still holding Ruby's hands which are still holding the scarf.

It's a bit awkward at first. Maybe even throughout the whole process. Since Weiss was determined to have Ruby's hands do everything, she has to tell her when to let go and which part to grasp and correct her each time she did it wrong. This would have been easier if Weiss just showed it with her own hands but Ruby doesn't want her partner to let go of her hands just yet.

When Weiss asked her to watch, Ruby did. It just so happens that she's just paying attention to everything else at the same time. She watches as Weiss' hands meticulously lead her through the technique. She watches and consolidates the feeling of rough calluses and soft fabric, both warm and comforting to touch.

She watches until her eyes trail upwards the slender neck. She sees her lips dry from the cold and tries not to think of how much she wants to warm them up. She sees the way her lower lip is pulled back and she almost misses it if only she wasn't this close to spot it. She sees her eyes focused on the task and unaware of being watched. Her eyes which are tired but still blue and beautiful.

She watches until she forgets what she's supposed to be watching for.

She's pretty sure that she'll forget how to do the scarf thing again but she'll never forget the things she's seen.

"There. Now you'll know how to do it next time."

 _Next time._ Ruby likes the sound of that.

It sounds like a promise.

A promise that there _will_ be a next time.

"Promise me you won't get mad if I mess it up again?"

Ruby never realized it before but this close, she thinks that Weiss has the prettiest eyes she's ever seen.

* * *

"Ruby... What color are your eyes?"

The out of nowhere question takes her by surprise. Maybe it's because she's been asked about her eyes more so than usual. Maybe it's because she's asked the same questions herself. But for whatever reason and for however much is left of her already fading will, she finds enough to croak out an answer.

"They're... silver."

She hears the sharp gasp but she's too far gone to comprehend what that means.

"Do you have any family? Friends?"

"...What?"

She hears the groans of the Grimm, closing in on them, slowly but surely to put them out of their misery. She hears them, too many of them. She hears them coming for her death. No, not death, but release. Release from everything. No, wait. Isn't that just the same? She doesn't know anymore.

She's finding it difficult to think when all she could think about is how the Grimm are already here and she thinks that she's forgetting something... something important.

"Don't think about them."

She hears the soothing voice silence her fears or what her fears would be if she cared enough. She doesn't know anymore. All she knows is she's so tired. But some small dying part of her also knows that she has to do something.

She doesn't know what that something is but the voice sounds like they know what they're doing and so she latches onto that.

"Think about the people who love you. Focus on the thought of them, the way they make you feel... Focus."

She thinks about her family. She thinks of her dad who's back on Patch waiting for her to come home with Zwei and food served with puns. She thinks of her Uncle Qrow who is sometimes a mess but he's still her hero who taught her what it was like to be a huntress.

She thinks about her friends whom she left behind. She thinks of Team JNR and how they're doing. She thinks of Ren's quiet yet constant support, wise beyond his years and amazing at making pancakes. She thinks of Nora's crazy antics and her loud ways of expressing affection or joy, sometimes both at the same time. She thinks of Jaune who's always trying his best and how he pushes her to do her best too.

She thinks about the people who got dragged into this journey yet somehow chose to come along. She thinks of Maria who no one really expected her to join them but here she is, wise as much as she is sassy, getting them to move when they frozen in fear. She thinks of Oscar who went from just farmboy to farmboy with an old wizard in his head, and how he reminds him of herself, inexperienced and young and full of ambition.

"Life is beautiful."

She thinks about her team. She thinks of Blake who lends her books to read and stays in the room no matter how much she dislikes Zwei. She thinks of how she fights for what she believes in and she believes in what is right. She thinks of her sister Yang who dishes out punches as many as she serves punchlines. She thinks of how her sister has always been there for her, never leaving her side especially when things got tough. She thinks of how there is no one else in this world she'd rather have as her sister.

She thinks about her partner. She thinks of Weiss who is sometimes prickly but deep down is actually a softie. She thinks of how sometimes she buries how much she cares underneath layers of scoffs and haughty remarks because she's too proud to show affection. She thinks of how much she's changed because of them and how much she's changed them as well, Ruby especially.

She thinks about her best friend. She thinks of Weiss who denies this fact yet goes out of her way to get her coffee she never asked but needed, which only proves Ruby's point. She thinks of how she would follow her anyways with only mild complaining. She thinks of how her smirk softens to a smile when she thinks she isn't looking. She thinks of how coincidentally she only notices that happen around her.

She thinks of how she would never hug first but she would always hug her back. She thinks of how she would always have her back.

She thinks of how truly lucky she was to have Weiss as her partner and her best friend.

"It is precious."

She thinks about the people who didn't make it. She thinks of Penny, how cheerful she was and how she was already ready and willing to help a friend. She thinks of Pyrrha, how amazing she was and how earnest she was to meet a challenge. She thinks of her mom, how she was a supermom who could go out and be a hero helping people then go home and be the best mom that there ever was.

She thinks about how they were gone too soon. She thinks about how much she doesn't want to lose any more precious people too soon.

She thinks about how much she loves these people and how much she is loved in return.

"And it must be protected."

She thinks about just how much she wants to protect them.

She thinks that she has to protect them.

She _will_ protect them.

 _Silver eyes glow bright until the darkness is banished by her light._

* * *

 **A/N:** Please read **'Not a Fairy Tale Dream'** for the nightmare sequence oneshot :)

Initially, I wrote the nightmare sequence as part of this piece but it felt too long and not much whiterose content in it so I decided to post it as a separate piece. I do hope that you'd still give it a chance. Thank you!

 _Wowsers. There's a lot to unpack in this episode._

What shook me the most was that scene between Ruby and Qrow. This is Ruby, the girl who is full of love and who rarely expresses anger at anything other than the enemies, actually gets so mad and frustrated that she lashes out by throwing that bottle to pieces. She's so mad and yet she still doesn't direct that anger to her struggling uncle. Instead she even embraces him and offers support. That was the most powerful moment in the episode for me.

The part with the well was absolutely amazing too. Ruby's instant regret once she dropped the relic and how she stood her ground against her team to get it back. I was holding my breath, worried that the team would let her go down alone but it was nice that despite their apathy, they went with her. They may abandon the cause but they are not abandoning their leader. That was perfectly executed and so it felt right to not write about that scene anymore. I still love it though!

As much as I love Weiss in this episode, I felt that Ruby deserved this chapter. And I really really love Weiss in the episode (and in general of course). I love how vindictive she was and burnt the whole house down. And I love how far she's grown as a character to actually apologize first. I might revisit this in another chapter but let it be known that I truly love Weiss.

 _Hey so uh, quick questions._ Since Weiss burned those Apathy grimms, did they die? If they did, does that mean that she could summon them now? If she could, then could she direct their powers as in she could specifically target people with apathy syndrome which means she and comrades are unaffected? Because if the answer to all of this is yes then holy shit.


	7. We Reap What We Sow

**We Reap What We Sow**

* * *

"Ruby, would you like some coffee?"

Weiss walks in holding two steaming cups. Just two. Ruby wonders why Weiss even bothered to ask when she's already made her a cup. She's pretty sure that second cup all but has her name on it given that they were the only two people in the room.

Unless of course Weiss planned on drinking two cups of coffee in one sitting which isn't unexpected of her during exam weeks back at Beacon.

But this was no exam week and they were certainly not in Beacon. They were in Argus on an ordinary day, or at least as ordinary as their lives would allow.

Coffee sounds nice today. Mundane even. Non life threatening or life changing.

It's a nice change of pace compared to yesterday.

"Oh, sure!" She gives her a grateful smile.

"I thought you'd say yes so here." Weiss hands her a cup and then takes her seat beside Ruby on the sofa, their knees almost touching but Ruby scooches a bit to correct that.

Ruby blows on the cup, too excited to drink something that isn't water to even notice the different scent. She takes a tentative sip.

When the warm liquid touches her tongue, it's only then that she finally notices.

"Uh, Weiss? This isn't coffee." She sends her a confused look, unaware that her own eyes crinkle at the corners with delight.

"I know. It's hot chocolate." Weiss answers with a smug smile that she discreetly covers as she takes a sip from her own cup which was actually coffee. "I thought you would have preferred it."

She does. Ruby does prefer hot chocolate, it's up there on top of the list of things she likes to drink, up with milk. Coffee is rather low on the list however 'coffee made by Weiss' bumps it up a couple of rankings. She wouldn't have minded coffee as long as it was more milk and sugar than it was coffee but Weiss knew that too.

And while she does prefer hot chocolate, she couldn't help but wonder why Weiss had called it something it was not in the first place.

"Then why did you ask me if I wanted coffee?"

Weiss refuses to meet her gaze. Instead she simply shrugs, nonchalant.

"I thought you'd appreciate the surprise."

Funny how those seem few and far in between— the pleasant kind in particular.

"I do." Ruby hears herself smile and feels the growing grin on her lips when she takes a generous sip of her drink. _Sweet._ Just how she likes it. And Weiss made this so she likes it even more. _Sweeter._ "Thank you."

They stay like that for a while. Sitting comfortably beside each other with a steaming beverage of their choice in their hands. The only thing missing was a blanket wrapped warmly around them but then again the comfortable silence blanketing them already does the job.

It feels like it's been so long since they've had a moment of reprieve like this. That was what? The other day ago? Huh, now that Ruby thought on this, it really has been just two days since their last break.

Yesterday they had to cut their rest short once the train was attacked. Then the train crash happened. Then they found out about Jinn, the first of many of Ozpin's secrets. One of those secrets is that he didn't have a plan at all and the world is basically doomed to Salem anyways. Then there was the Apathy Grimm but that was this morning, does that count? Well it was horrible too so she counts it as part of the never ending day of pure awful.

Wow, it's kind of amazing to think that so much has happened in a single day. It would have been amazing if only the things that happened weren't so terrible.

It felt like that day would never end and now here they were on a brand new day.

It's a new day but their worries are still all the same.

"Are you still worried about Atlas?"

Ruby breaks the silence. It cuts through whatever comfortable cloud they were in before. Comfort is nice and all but sometimes they need to get out of their comfort zones too.

"I... It's not..." Weiss keeps starting sentences she couldn't seem to finish. She's usually so eloquent with words but not so right now.

Now they were alone. Now she was vulnerable. Now she was vulnerable and trying to hide and show that vulnerability at the same time.

"I'm not saying we shouldn't go. I meant what I said back then. I'm sorry about what I said about giving up." This part was the easiest to admit. This part she already knows and recites without so much as a stutter. As for the rest however,

"I don't want to give up now. Not when..." She bites her bottom lip, contemplating. "But at the same time, I still..." Her free hand curls into a fist, frustrated.

"I'm not giving up on you—" Weiss corrects herself immediately, "On this trip, I mean."

They both gloss over her slip of the tongue.

"I'm not going to abandon the cause now and I've already made up my mind but it's just..." She swallows the rest of her words along with her coffee, scalding her in the process yet refusing to show weakness.

It was so easy to blame it on the Apathy back there at Brunswick. But here?

All this hesitation was _hers_ and hers _alone._

"It's just... hard, you know?"

And it is. It's hard. It must have been hard for Weiss to admit this since the last time she spoke on the matter, she had a different opinion on what to do or rather not do.

Admitting her mistake and correcting it is also a different kind of hard. The kind of difficulty that in the past would have taken her time to overcome. At present, she overcame it as soon as she recognized it.

She's come a long way. And Ruby's grateful that she's still coming with them along the way.

"I get it, Weiss. I know you're all, well... _mostly_ set to do this." She reassures her with an encouraging smile and a soft squeeze on the shoulder. "Don't worry. I trust you on that."

She trusts her on more than just that, it goes without saying.

"But just because you're going to do something doesn't mean you're going to enjoy every step of it."

For Weiss who's been pointedly avoiding eye contact ever since that loaded question was asked, she suddenly whips her head to stare at her.

"I can't believe how easily you found the words that I was looking for," She comments in an awestruck tone, soft and relieved and appreciative.

"It's not that hard when you know where to look," Ruby quips with a toothy grin.

"And where exactly did you look?"

"I looked at you."

Ruby answers so simply, so _honestly,_ as if it truly was that _easy,_ that Weiss heard her own laughter before she even understood why she was giggling. As for Ruby, she doesn't get why her partner was giggling but she's not one to question a good thing. So she joins her laughing fit instead.

Their giggles fill their lungs and spill out and into the room, light and uplifting.

"Thank you," Weiss finally says once their laughter subsides but the pleasantness lingers. This time she's the one who offers a smile first. It's her rare affectionate gesture of thanks, "For understanding."

She finally unclenches her free hand and places it on top of Ruby's hand which hasn't let go of her shoulder all throughout.

"And for everything else."

She adds with an extra tilt in her smile, just a teensy bit more affectionate than her usual, maybe even sweeter.

It's a pleasant surprise, few and far in between— and _much_ appreciated.

"You're welcome, Weiss!" Ruby beams at her so hard that she could feel her jaw aching. It's a good ache. She hums and cooes, "What are partners for, right?"

When Ruby tries to pull her hand away, she's surprised when her partner instead holds it in place in a firm grip. She looks at her, confused. Her confusion grows when she sees Weiss with her face set so seriously.

"Is that how _you_ feel?"

She blinks. What did she mean by that?

"Is what how I feel what now?"

She honestly asks and Weiss just looks at her in that Weiss way where she's trying to be patient but also trying to move things along faster.

"Ruby." She tries again, her voice even and careful. "Is that how you feel too? Doing something but being miserable throughout the whole thing?"

Oh. She's talking about _that._

"Wow, this is some real good cocoa."

She does _not_ want to talk about that.

"You know you can talk to me—" Weiss quickly corrects herself. " _Us._ You can talk to us."

If only Weiss knew how Ruby just said those same words to her own uncle.

And just like her Uncle Qrow, she bottles it up too.

Ruby smiles into her cup. It's the kind of smile that she's been wearing a lot more this year than she has in her whole life before this tragic year started. It's the sad kind of smile. The chocolate drink has now gone tepid and it doesn't taste as sweet as it did at first. She smiles just a bit sadder. Resigned.

She should have known.

Getting Weiss out of her comfort zone meant that she had to leave hers too.

"I thought I was supposed to be the one comforting you and not the other way around?"

Weiss simply scoffs. "I think it's obvious who's supposed to be comforted based on who gets the comfort drink, right?"

"Uhhh, so both of us?" Ruby argues with her own set of logic. It's surprisingly sound.

Her partner opens her mouth to protest, her eyes were already smoldering and set to win this argument. However, even she is surprised when she does otherwise.

"I suppose that's acceptable," She concedes in an even tone.

Now that _is_ a surprise. It's not really the pleasant kind of surprise or the bad kind either. It's just leaning towards more of the confusing kind. Because Weiss argues to win any if not _all_ arguments.

So for her to concede— and so easily at that!— it's a bit suspicious, isn't it?

"Sooo..." Ruby takes another slurp of her cocoa.

Some part of her can't help but be concerned since she was running out of that but the other part of her pulls her away from the distraction. _Focus._ What were they talking about again? Oh, right.

"If we're both supposed to be comforted then what does that mean?"

"It means that since my turn's obviously over then it's your turn to be comforted," Weiss explains it in a way that makes it not only seem like a fact but also an order.

Definitely more of an order coming from her.

"But Weiiiiiss!"

She tuts her. "No buts! We are doing this and you are going to cooperate!"

"Hmph, who made you leader..." She grumbles because she knows she couldn't get out of this not when her partner was holding her hand on lockdown.

She could always wrench her hand away but with Weiss still holding a hot cup of an accident waiting to happen, she's practically holding Ruby's hand hostage.

"I heard that!" Weiss actually releases her hand to lightly smack the back of her head. "And if you must know, as your partner, I have to step up to your role if the need arises."

"Pretty sure this is _insubstitution!"_ She rubs the sore spot where her partner hit her.

"It's _insubordination,_ you dolt." She sternly corrects her. "And even then it's still the wrong term. I believe the word you're looking for is 'usurp' which is an accusation against me at best."

"Why would I slurp?" Ruby asks with genuine confusion, her head tilting as if the answer would come to her at just the right angle. It doesn't.

"Nevermind." Weiss heaves a long suffering sigh. They're getting off track and she suspects that this might be Ruby's plan all along. Well she won't let her partner get away that easily. "The point is that sometimes it doesn't hurt to share in the responsibilities."

 _To share the burden,_ it goes without saying.

"I'm the leader, you know," Ruby mumbles, neither refusing nor accepting her partner's offer. She casually swings her legs. She feels restless all of a sudden. She wrings her hands, hoping it'll calm her growing anxiety. "I'm supposed to be strong."

"And you are," Weiss affirms without skipping a beat and without lack of faith. "You _are_ strong. And I mean this not just in physical strength but in other ways as well. You are one of the strongest people I know and you've been an excellent leader despite our dire circumstances."

"Thanks." When Ruby smiles, it doesn't quite reach her eyes. It's as if she only agrees out of politeness. She doesn't quite believe her own strength to be as much as her partner sees in her.

But Weiss is having none of that attitude from her.

"I'm not finished." She tuts her and then continues, "Yes, it is true that as a leader, there are certain expectations of you..."

 _She had to be the strong reliable leader that they needed her to be and yet—_

"But just because you're supposed to be strong doesn't mean you have to be strong all the time."

And yet here's her partner telling her that it's okay to sometimes not be that person she has to be.

"Let me ask you this again and this time, I want you to be honest." Weiss turns to face her, her piercing gaze practically commanding her to obey.

To which she doesn't object. She just sits there, waiting for the question she already knows she'll ask.

It's the same question she's been avoiding asking herself.

She doesn't know how to answer it. She doesn't know if she even wants to know the answer itself. She doesn't know for sure if she'll like the answer.

"Ruby, are you okay?"

But she'll never know until she tries to actually answer.

"I..."

She considers dodging the question at first. But then she reconsiders when she thinks about how unfair that would be to her partner who has been honest despite her own probing question earlier.

But honestly, she just doesn't know.

She doesn't know what she feels anymore or if she's even letting herself feel it all. Sometimes she feels overwhelmed.

She's never kept track of these times so sometimes just might be more often than not.

It's been hard, hard on all of them, and she doesn't want to think that it's been especially hard for her but sometimes it feels that way.

Just when they thought that they were finally making progress towards the future they've been working so hard on, for the better world they've been fighting this war for, suddenly they were told that everything had been for nothing.

To say that it's taken a toll on the team morale is an understatement.

The revelation devastated them into pieces and it fell upon her to pick them back up— and she _tries._ She tries so hard piece them back together but she could only do _so much._ It felt like it was _not enough._

She tried to carry them, carry so much— _too much._

She never noticed herself slowly giving underneath the weight.

Or if she did, she never cared for herself because she was too busy caring for others instead.

 _I'm not okay._

She isn't. She's far from okay. If she were to be honest then that would be the short and simple answer. But it's not that simple. It never is.

She doesn't want to admit it just yet because—

If she wasn't okay then who was?

Someone had to be okay. They needed someone to lead them right now and since Ozpin has walked out and Qrow is barely sober, she had to be that someone.

She understands why she has to do it and she would always step up for the role if she has to but just because she's doing it doesn't mean it won't be terrible on her. She expected hardships, that's part of the package she signed up for being a Huntress. But with all of the extra baggage, it's just been… _hard._

But even so, she doesn't want to give up. She can't afford to give up. She has to try.

Even if it is impossible, even if they are up against an unstoppable monster they can never hope to beat, they still have to _try._

Because it's not about what they have to gain, it's what they can't afford to lose.

She thinks of the people she loves and who love her in return and just how much she doesn't want to lose any more.

She remembers just how powerful that love has made her.

And that's how Ruby finds her answer.

 _I'm not okay but..._

"I will be."

It doesn't sound like the answer that Weiss was expecting because she looks ready to say something but whatever she sees in Ruby has her holding her tongue. But it does sound like an answer she approves of if her smug smile is any indication.

She croons, "I was right."

"About what?"

Weiss juts her chin out the way she does whenever she's proud of something.

"You, Ruby Rose, are strong."

Or rather _someone_ in this case.

"Oh, wow." The out of nowhere praise throws her off balance.

When Weiss reaches out to tenderly wipe her face of tears, it's only then that she realizes that she's been crying all this time. Now that she has noticed, she sniffles a bit harder.

"Geez, you just want to rub it in that you were right again."

"Because I'm always right."

"Except those times you were wrong."

"We don't talk about those times."

Ruby laughs and lets Weiss win this debate. She thinks her partner needs a win more than her.

"If I'm strong then it's only because I have you guys to make me strong," She blurts out, surprising herself but she doesn't take back words she already believes in and her partner hums in agreement.

She tries to rub the rest of her tear stained face but it seems as though she wasn't doing a good job at it because Weiss eventually pulls out a handkerchief. With only mild complaining, she wipes her face. She then holds it over Ruby's nose and asks her to blow, which she obeys.

The gesture is so considerate, so gentle, so _unexpected_ — another pleasant surprise.

Eventually, Ruby's tears subside and a peaceful lull follows after.

"How do you do that?"

"How do I do what?"

Weiss repeats herself, her voice becoming softer with every question, more sincere than simply curious.

"How do you that? How do you keep moving? How do you keep looking forward?"

 _How are you so strong?_

"Because I have to."

Ruby lets that answer hang in the air they breathe.

"You know you don't have to do this alone, right?" Weiss asks her, watching her carefully for her answer.

"I know." She turns to her with a smile that's more genuine than her last one. The kind of smile that Weiss sometimes thinks only she receives. "That's why I have you, right?"

"Yes, you have me." Weiss nods, satisfied with her partner's answer.

"And Team RWBY?" She asks expectantly.

"And Team RWBY." Before Ruby could ask for anyone else, Weiss beats her to it. "And Team JNR, and Oscar, and Qrow, and even Maria. We're all here for you."

"And you!" Ruby happily declares.

"And me." Weiss answers with her own small yet genuine smile.

Those smiles have a tendency to happen more often around her dolt of a partner. Whether or not she'd admit to them is a separate matter. She sees Ruby's smile grow into a knowing grin and that's how she knows she's been caught.

It baffles her why this embarrasses her so but she refuses to continue under her partner's teasing scrutiny. That's why she has to steer her attention elsewhere.

She clears her throat. "You know, I've read this study that holding a warm mug imitates the same feelings of holding someone's hand."

"Is that why I always see you drinking coffee?" Ruby quips with a playful tone. "Aww, Weiss if you're lonely, you just have to say so."

"H-How dare you!" She sputters indignantly. "Just what do you think you're implying! For your information, I drink coffee because I actually enjoy the beverage!"

"It's okay, Weiss." She pats her thigh consolingly which only infuriates her partner further. "It'll be our little secret just between us partners."

"Don't patronize me!"

Ruby doesn't let Weiss' threats stop her. Instead she drinks in a few audible gulps of her not so hot anymore chocolate, then with her free hand, she takes her partner's hand with an all too happy grin.

"For the last time, I am _not_ lonely!" Weiss squawks and tries to pull her hand away but Ruby's grip is stronger. So she settles to retaliate in shouts, "Let go of my hand this instant!"

"Nuh-uh." If she looks smug about her partner's futile attempts to slip away her hand, that's because she is. "Besides, whoever said I was holding your hand because you're lonely? Unless you _are."_ She taunts her.

Weiss scoffs, refusing to lose. "Then why the sudden need for contact?"

"I ran out of cocoa," Ruby reasons with a teasing smile. She even shows her the empty cup just to prove her claim.

"How does that answer my question?" She rolls her eyes.

"Come on, Weiss. If you're not gonna say it then I won't say it either."

"Tragic. I suppose we'll just have to spend the rest of this conversation in silence."

She doesn't pull back anymore. She supposes that pulling her hand away now would be pointless anyways.

So it takes her by surprise when instead Ruby makes another move.

Specifically, she sets her own cup on the table and then proceeds to take away Weiss' cup of coffee to set it aside too.

"Hey! I haven't finished that yet!"

Weiss has more to say about that but Ruby hushes her with gentle arms wrapping around her.

"Sshhh, it's hugging time."

She settles her chin on top of Weiss' shoulder and hums happily. For the first time since yesterday's mess, Weiss feels her relax. She feels the burden resting on Ruby's shoulders, heavy and daunting, feels it as she sinks deeper into the embrace.

She lets her partner lean on her.

"For goodness sake, you're trying too hard." She scolds her in the way that only she could pull off, chiding yet caring at the same time. She returns the hug with a tender squeeze. "Don't overdo it, dolt."

"No promises!" Ruby laughs and it's contagious.

Maybe it's because they're both holding onto each other so when one shakes with joy, the other can't help but join after. Or maybe it's just the way laughter works. Either way, Ruby's joy is a gift shared between them.

"Besides, that's what I have you for! Right, partner?"

 _You'll always have me,_ Weiss almost says.

"Is that all you keep me around for?" She says instead with an eyebrow raised and her tone dripping with sarcasm. "And here I thought you tolerated me because we were friends."

"We are friends! The bestest! We're BFFs!" Ruby quickly reassures her with fervent nods that feels ticklish on Weiss.

"We're best _partners."_ Weiss insists. She doesn't deny the claims on friendship, she doesn't need to nor does she want to.

"The _bestest_ partners!" She nuzzles against her shoulder so affectionately that Weiss doesn't have it in her heart to correct her partner's grammar.

She has gotten soft, hasn't she? Ruby has this way of taking in the hard world and turning it into something softer. Weiss is no exception.

So rather than fixate on incorrect tenses, instead she focuses on what's truly important. Or rather, _who_ 's truly important.

She lays her head on top of Ruby's, maybe even placing a light kiss on the crown of her hair. She thinks she feels the light brushing of Ruby's own lips against her shoulder but it was so quick and light that she just might have imagined it. They both snuggle closer, not letting any warmth escape except for their content sighs.

Weiss feels grateful to have Ruby as her partner, her leader, her friend.

To have someone so strong right beside her, with her, she feels just a bit stronger— just a bit braver.

And for the times that Ruby isn't strong, Weiss will carry her on.

* * *

 **A/N:** **This has the same energy as Chapter 2** and was built up across all the chapters leading up to this. Felt like this was a good point to give Ruby the comfort she deserves and Weiss too! _Personally, I consider this a soft breakdown for Ruby just in case she needs a major breakdown chapter in the future :)_

I started this fic with the expectation that I'll just be writing 1K oneshots weekly but in reality the average wordcount is at 2K-3K. But this chapter? **It's whopping 4K words!** The longest so far! So I hope you enjoy the extra whiterose content!

My personal headcanon is that Ruby doesn't actually like coffee. But Weiss offered her coffee on that night she finally acknowledged Ruby as her leader and since then Weiss would sometimes make her coffee and Ruby was just too happy to tell Weiss that she'd rather prefer cocoa or milk. It just kind of stuck.

WHO ELSE SCREAMED WHEN THEY SAW THE HAPPY WIVES? IT'S A TRICK QUESTION. WE ALL SCREAMED! So in honor of that extra gay and wholesome episode (and also for the lack of whiterose content there), here's an extra gay and wholesome chapter.

 _Here are some interesting timestamps from the episode!_

08:41- after Maria says "Well I'm nothing but a disappointment so you're well on your way", everyone looks sideways but in particular, it looks like Weiss is looking at Ruby. It could be concern over how much Qrow's spiral would affect Ruby. It could be a coincidence and just a generic side glance but eh, food for thought.

08:59- "...afraid someone would find me again. Finish what they started.", we see Weiss look at Ruby. Is she concerned for Ruby being hunted? Or does she relate with the feeling of fear of being found by the wrong people (case in point Jackass Schnee)?

10:18- if you watch Weiss closely on the uphill ride, she's smiling but once they actually see Argus, she's the only one who's not smiling on top of that hill. Well, Oscar looks more in awe not smiling but Weiss? She looks so concerned. She's already committed to coming with them but that doesn't mean she's happy about it. Please give this girl a hug.

 _It always feels good to write some comfort between these two partners. I hope you enjoyed reading this just as much as I enjoyed writing it! Let me know what you think! And see you next week too!_


	8. Seek A Way Out

**Seek A Way Out**

* * *

The gates close on them, shutting down their only plan to get to Atlas.

Even though it would be so easy to have them open again but only for Weiss and Weiss _alone._

"I don't..."

 _I don't want to go back to Atlas if it means I have to go back alone._

"Weiss, I told you that we wouldn't leave your side for a second."

Ruby reminds her of her promise not so long ago and how she plans on keeping it.

That she isn't in this alone. _Never again._

"We'll find a way to Atlas—"

She places her hand on Weiss' shoulder and squeezes gently.

"Together," She reassures her with a tender smile.

Weiss looks at her partner's hand. A comforting weight. That's what it's always has been— a weight but never a burden. Her partner has never been a burden pulling her down, if anything, she was the weight that grounded her to reality.

There are times where she'd feel lost, as if floating. It happens more often than not since the fall of Beacon, since her escape from Atlas, since her isolation. Sometimes she feels as if she'll float too far away. But she never does. Ruby makes it a point that she doesn't.

She doesn't pull her down but instead she pulls her back.

She pulls her back until Weiss finally finds the ground again. It's uneven and maybe even shaky but for her to move forward, it's enough. It's a start.

This is her choice. She chose to follow Ruby and the rest of the team to Atlas. And her partner would be there with her every step of the way. Just like she promised.

It's her reassuring presence that makes her feel just a bit braver despite the terrifying uncertainty of it all.

She lets that comforting weight ground her. She lets it settle in until she feels her shoulders give in and relax. Ruby has always had that effect on her when she needs her to be. Words can't describe just how truly grateful she was for this.

So Weiss doesn't say anything at all. Instead she just nods and gives her one of her softest smiles, the kind of smile that only Ruby could pull from her with natural ease.

In that moment, she thinks that it's going to be okay.

* * *

Everyone was not okay.

"Sooo," Ruby starts.

They were on their way back from their failed attempt on negotiations at the Argus outpost. The tram ride was filled with silent discontent and that didn't sit well with Ruby. They were warned that it wasn't going to work out but they didn't think it was this bad.

No one was happy about that, Weiss especially, who stood sullenly with just a shared pole in between them.

She was so close yet she felt so far away— closed off.

That unsettled Ruby. She didn't want to see Weiss like this or any of her friends just as restless. She had to keep team morale up or at least dispel the uncomfortable mood going around.

"Who else thought that it was going to be Winter?"

Yang's the first to bite, eager and still bitter. "If Winter's anything like Weiss then we could have at least gotten some respect."

Weiss answers with a scoff. "You clearly don't know my sister. Winter's unlike me." She pauses to carefully consider a more accurate description of her sister.

She thinks of her sister and how different things would have been if she was there to intercept them. She pictures what she would have said about their compromised situation and what she would have done to correct it. She summarizes that it would not have been just different but _better._

Winter has always strived to make things better. It's her that inspires Weiss to be better herself.

She envisions her sister, strict yet considerate in her own way. She imagines how much safer she would have felt to have her by her side, to have someone to confide in and truly understand the stakes she has in returning to Atlas, to their father. She remembers her as perhaps her only family who has treated her rightly.

She thinks of Winter and just how sorely she wishes she were here with her.

"She's unlike anyone I know on Remnant."

Weiss finishes with a dignified tone and in good form, something her sister would have been proud of had she witnessed it.

"In a good way?" Blake asks even though it was obvious in Weiss' eyes what the answer would be.

"Good? She'll be _better._ Perhaps just shy of perfection." Weiss answers anyways. "If only it was Winter who was stationed at this post then we would all have been treated with the respect we deserve."

That still struck a nerve with all of them.

"Too bad we got stuck with the racist gremlin instead," Maria quips with surprising speed. She must never run out of insults against the elitist midget.

The quip works its way around the group in chuckles. It's the kind of laughter that one makes when restraining oneself from retaliating against a bigot. They're better people than them definitely but that doesn't mean they aren't above knocking some sense should the need arise.

"Why can't we ask help from her instead?" Oscar chimes in.

Weiss merely shakes her head. "Because the last I've heard of her is that she's still with General Ironwood back at Atlas. And you know how it is..."

"With the CCT Towers still down, communication is impossible," Ren helpfully supplies.

"Precisely. So we can cross out that plan for the time being." She shrugs.

"This sucks!" Nora whines with no small amount of drama, her back leaning against Ren who's holding her by the shoulder.

"That's one way to describe our situation." She agrees with her with an exasperated sigh.

The ride falls silent again after that. There's really not much to say after a dead end.

"Do you miss her?" Jaune asks, the question feels apt coming from someone who has probably had the same concerns regarding physical separation between siblings.

"Every single day." Weiss answers perhaps a bit too honestly. So she reels back just a bit and adds with an indifferent wave, "But this is nothing new. She's always hard to get in touch with ever since she signed up for the military. I'm used to it."

And she is. She's lived most of her life with Winter at Atlas military's beck and call rather than with her at home in the mansion. Not that she would blame her. Their mansion was more house than it was home. That's why Weiss went off to Beacon the moment that the opportunity arose. It was inevitable for the two sisters to be apart.

Still, if she were to be honest, she misses her sister dearly.

She feels a hand, firm yet gentle on her shoulder. Supportive. When she lifts her dejected gaze, she meets reassuring bright silver eyes.

"Chin up, Weiss!" Ruby encourages her with her own chin up, maybe just a few more degrees upward than necessary but in true Ruby fashion of going the extra mile.

It's enough to get Weiss to smile that soft smile.

"Look on the bright side! At least that's someone to look forward to in Atlas!"

Oh, Ruby. Always looking forward. Never change.

"Actually if you don't mind the detour, I'd really like to stop by and see my butler Klein too." That might come with complications so she quickly adds as an afterthought, "Outside of the mansion preferably."

Ruby's face lights up at the prospect of meeting a new friendly face.

"Even better! _Two_ someone's!"

That's how Weiss' smile breaks into laughter. After earlier's disappointment, laughter was the furthest thing in her mind. But this was certainly a pleasant change of pace.

Ruby has always had that way of changing her mind, usually for the better.

"You have a butler?!" She hears Nora squeal from the other side of the tram and when she sneaks a glance, she sees Ren shushing her.

She feels the hand on her shoulder lift and she has to restrain herself from pouting at the missed contact. Ruby on the other hand, is still smiling. There's an almost mischievous glint in her eyes, almost scheming.

That's when Weiss feels a different kind of contact.

Ruby's other hand moves on top of hers, resting there. It's a stark contrast with the smooth and cold pole she's grasping on. Rough with calluses and warm with affection, Ruby's hand rests on hers in a way that makes her feel less restless.

It feels like coming home after a long day.

And it is with that feeling that Weiss decides to pull back her hand—

Only to intertwine their fingers.

Their interlaced hands were discreetly angled on the side of the pole hidden from the rest of their friends. But also public for the rest of the world to see. She feels that they should be a bit more discreet but she finds that she couldn't care less once she sees Ruby's infectious grin.

Ruby's smile is always worth it.

However, when she looks over Ruby's beaming face, she sees their friends smiling just as brightly, if not teasingly.

There's Nora with her loud heart-shaped gestures. Beside her is Ren who sends her a more quiet smile with an acknowledging tilt to his head. Even Jaune gives her an encouraging thumbs up.

She rolls her eyes to the side where Blake is at least hiding her knowing grin even though her eyes give her away anyways. Then there's Yang who is never subtle, wearing a smug smile and throwing finger guns at her.

She turns her ire to the rest of the group. Oscar gives her a shy but supportive wave. Maria looks amused, probably holding back a sassy quip. And if Qrow was here, he would have flashed her a smirk that she knows all too well what it means.

So much for discretion, it looks like they saw anyways.

"Whatcha looking at, Weiss?"

She watches the speed at which the scene changes in almost comical fashion. The moment that Ruby looks back, everyone goes about acting casual, pretending they weren't teasing them just before they were almost caught. Typical.

Well, everyone except Yang who is still shooting at them with finger guns, much to Ruby's confusion.

"It's nothing, Ruby. I just thought I saw something but it was probably nothing."

"Hmmmm..." She looks at her skeptically far longer than necessary. After a few awkward seconds of intense staring, she eventually gives up with a shrug. "Well, if you say so!"

The moment that Ruby returns her focus on Weiss, their friends return to their previous teasing positions. How astute of them.

Well she won't let only them to have the satisfaction.

She allows her fingertips to draw comforting patterns on Ruby's knuckles, relishing in the privacy that at least this small innocuous action will be hidden from the prying eyes of their friends.

But certainly not past Ruby's ever growing warmer face.

A part of her wonders if she reached out and touch the furious blush, would it feel just as warm as her hand did?

She feels Ruby's fingertips draw shy circles on her own knuckles, the tenderness of the action almost feels ticklish on her skin, while the electrifying sensation runs wildly from her hand up to the rest of her arm. Reciprocated.

Ruby might not say the words but Weiss hears them again all the same.

She's not at all excited about going back to Atlas but she does appreciate that come whatever trouble thrown at them, she'll at least face it with her partner.

* * *

 _"Well I'm glad you're all excited. But I don't think you appreciate the trouble I went through to leave Atlas."_

 _"I know you're worried, Weiss, but trust us. Team RWBY won't leave your side for a second!"_

 _Ruby reassures her, stepping closer, stepping up as the reliable leader and partner._

 _And most importantly, her best friend who has never left her alone since their reunion and has no plans of splitting up again._

 _"I promise."_

 _She's still unsure about this whole trip to Atlas but with her partner backing her up along with the rest of their team, she feels just a bit more certain. Her hesitation melts into a smile in the presence of Ruby's promising words._

 _And with her softest smile, Weiss reaffirms her own promise._

 _Once upon a time, Weiss had promised to be the best partner to Ruby and she intends to keep every word of it._

* * *

 **A/N:** Who else was Winter-baited? Now I have to pick up the shattered pieces of my disappointment. But at least we get some more Ruby taking charge moments! *adds fodder for the major breakdown chapter*

This is my attempt to satisfy a reader's challenge on including other characters, indulging in fluff, and still maintaining the current tension in canon.

 _Spyro my bro (and the other Guest)_ , please log in because I want to reply to your reviews but I can't D: but I thank you for still leaving kind reviews!

Ruby reaffirming her promise with Weiss and then Weiss smiling that soft smile is so precious! GOD I AM SO WEAK! Hit me with that supportive partners shit!

 **ANNOUNCEMENT: This will be the last chapter for this year.** While the next new episode will be on the 29th for First members on RT, I plan on sticking to updating along with the Free members schedule to give me more leeway to write **so the next chapter will be on the 5th.**

I may or may not write a separate oneshot for the ship just not for this fic, just to fill in the void of next week. So hypothetically look forward to that? A strong maybe. Depends on my IRL responsibilities and how much I'm willing to ditch them for my whiterose thirst.

* * *

 **Full disclosure.** I know I said I'd write a chapter for every episode and that is still what I plan to do it's just... I was kind of expecting to give up on it halfway through due to lack of feedback (it's sad when it's quiet) but then YOU people showed up and honestly I can't thank you enough. **Especially the regular reviewers. You the real MVPs. You don't know how much power you give me, honestly. PS I love you.**

 **You keep me writing.** I look forward to you people every week and in between updates I sometimes look back on your comments to cheer me up on bad days. Thank you for reading this current passion fic of mine and for all the wonderful words (even just the commentary about the new episodes) you leave on every chapter. **So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.**

 _I hope you've been enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing this (which is A LOT) and so, see you next year for more! Take care, everyone!_


	9. Lost and Found

**Lost and Found**

* * *

If there's something that Weiss recognizes painfully more so than most people do, it's anger.

She was practically raised by anger more than her family did. There was her father who used and abused anger on anyone, even on her, _especially_ on her. His anger was as furious as it was endless. Jacques was always mad at something or someone. If it wasn't the SDC then it was the White Fang and if it wasn't either of those then all that's left would be family, right?

And with the head of the family angry, so was everyone else.

Her mother used to be angry. She tries to remember that she had to have been angry because Weiss knows that if it were her, she would have been angry. Willow must have been angry until she stopped being angry. She stopped being anything at all by that point.

Her sister was the quiet kind of angry like how the cold could slowly and silently turn into frostbite. Winter was the one who worked the hardest on showing that she was above all that anger and in a way, she was. Unlike their father who would lash out on others or their mother who would drown herself, Winter's anger manifested in distance. She could give you a cold shoulder or she could kill you with frostbite.

Her brother was angry too. Whitley was raised by their father so of course he was angry before he even knew what it truly meant or how drastic the consequences were. But he was just a kid. He hadn't yet weaponized his anger like their father has but he will. For as long as he follows Jacques' footsteps then Whitley was doomed to fall into anger like him.

Then there's Weiss.

She thought she was angry before, and she was. She was angry at the White Fang for attacking the company that her family has built upon. But even though that anger still burns true now, it hasn't quite intensified like the sheer pent up fury she has for her father. And just like Jacques, Weiss weaponizes her anger. She takes all of her scorn and fights back with it.

It's a cruel joke that she's more similar with her father and of all things, it's through anger.

Growing up with anger so closely knitted to her family has made Weiss all too sharp to see the signs.

That's why she could recognize the signs in Ruby.

Ruby has raised her voice more times in the past few days than Weiss has ever heard of her during the many months with her back at Beacon. And even then, her leader only raised her voice to shout commands over the cacophonous noises of the battle. Ruby just wasn't the type to yell at people.

Until recently that is.

"You dropped this."

Weiss doesn't miss the way her partner almost jumps at the sudden intrusion. It's not like she was being sneaky about it but it seemed that Ruby was too preoccupied with her thoughts to even notice her approach.

"Oh, thanks." Ruby gives what Weiss thinks was supposed to be a smile but with her obvious nervousness, it comes out a grimace at best. "I was wondering where I dropped my phone."

That earned a judgmental glare from Weiss complete with hands placed on her lips.

"If you call chucking it overhead the same as dropping then you should be more careful. We wouldn't want you to 'drop' something else, now would we?"

"Eep!" Ruby yelps and recoils.

She looks like a kid caught with her hand stuck in a cookie jar and Weiss can confirm this because this is exactly what she looked when that specific scenario happened back in Beacon days. Granted of course back then, Ruby looked more like a kid. Now? She looked like an awkward teenager caught with throwing phones.

"You uh... saw that?" She scuffs her boots against the grass, guilty.

"No, not really." Weiss eases back from her intimidating stance now that its effect was no longer necessary. "I wasn't completely sure until you basically confirmed it for me."

"So if you didn't see it and if I didn't say anything then what gave me away?"

She gestures back to the house with a smirk. "As a lovely as this home is, it's not exactly soundproof."

She watches patiently until the gears inside Ruby's head finally fall into place.

"Riiight." She chuckles nervously. It was with that lingering embarrassment that she shyly asked, "Was I that loud?"

"Loud enough," _If one was listening attentive enough._

She couldn't admit to her partner that she just so happened to hear her because she was especially vigilant since her outburst at Jaune. She would have followed her outside too if she hadn't heard Maria's voice. She couldn't exactly make out the words but she figured that the retired huntress had this handled. And in case that she hadn't, Weiss would be here and ready.

So she just listlessly waited, her eyes never leaving those glass sliding doors until her partner would return.

"Sorry." Ruby's apology brings back her concerns.

"A little noise is not a big deal. No need to apologize," Weiss reassures her but it does little to dispel the tension in the air.

There's been a lot of that lately. Too much in fact.

"Hey, um, did you..." Ruby starts and then swallows with a loud gulp. Anxious. With trepidation quieting her voice, she murmurs, "Did you hear anything else? Aside from you know, the yell?"

Now that's an interesting question if not a revealing question.

 _She's hiding something._

Ruby's obviously reluctant to share whatever that is but Weiss knows better than to pry.

"Was I supposed to?" She arches an eyebrow at her.

"No!" Ruby shouts and then clamps her mouth with both hands as if shocked by her own outburst. She probably didn't mean to shout. "I mean, it's not important. Wait, no. It's..." She falters.

Torn. She looks so torn between opening up and simply keeping it close to her chest and the indecision is torturing her.

"It's nothing. Well, not really nothing, just a thing. It was a thing between me and Maria. Not like a secret thing but more like a private thing. I swear I'm not keeping anything that important!"

"It's alright, Ruby." Weiss puts a stop to her ramblings with a gentle hand on her shoulder. She has to consciously mask her worry from showing on her face or else incite more panic from her already rattled partner. "Just because this mess started with Ozpin's secret, doesn't mean that you need to tell us every detail of your private conversations with others."

Even though she would have preferred if she told her about this one specifically seeing how much it had distressed her.

"Unless of course if you're holding back something important. You aren't holding back, right?"

A pregnant pause.

"I'm not."

That split second hesitation says otherwise.

"Good." But Weiss doesn't call her out. Not yet.

She feels Ruby's shoulder heave along with a discreet relieved sigh. Her leader thinks she's out of the clear for now but Weiss has other plans. She's not about to let her go just yet. There's something else that's been bothering her about her partner.

If there's another thing that Weiss recognizes painfully more so than most people do, it's disappointment.

She's seen it more often than not when faced with a mirror.

And she sees the same face on Ruby when her partner thinks no one is looking.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

When Ruby shrugs off Weiss' hand, there's no hesitation—

Only _hurt._

The rejection hurt more than Weiss was willing to admit.

"Maybe later."

Ruby dismisses her in her authoritative leader voice.

"We need to find Oscar first and then Uncle Qrow."

It's how she dismisses most of her own problems or so Weiss has noticed. By donning on the role of the leader, she'd look out for the team first. Whether intentional or not, Ruby seems to forget that she was part of the team too and that she had to look out for herself too.

"Okay." Weiss relents for now but her scrutinizing gaze never yields. "Let's go find those two."

Her leader nods and is about to head out when Weiss grabs her by the arm.

"And then we'll talk." She narrows her eyes and meets with steely silver, refusing to be rejected once more. Once was already one too many times.

"Later," Ruby says it more to end the conversation rather than affirm to the demand.

However Weiss doesn't let her have the last words especially if she can't hold her partner to keep them.

" _Definitely_ later."

For as much as Ruby worries for others, Weiss could tell that she doesn't want others to worry for her.

It only makes Weiss worry for her more.

* * *

Ruby was worried.

It was hard not to be when everyone's falling apart. Well not exactly everyone. Team RWBY's keeping it together so far but that's only because they've already had time to deal with the new information in as much time as a day had given them.

That felt like one of just the many longest day of their lives.

The same can't be said for Team JNR who didn't get a whole day to process. They're mad and that anger is justified. However, blowing up on innocent people is not. It hasn't even been an hour since the reveal when Jaune exploded at Oscar.

And now Oscar's missing.

If something were to happen to Oscar then that would be Ruby's fault. Sure she got Jaune to back down before any misdirect aggression escalated but she should have checked up on Oscar after rather than give him space. But she didn't, so now they're looking for him in the hopes that wherever he is, he's safe and unharmed.

She didn't want to think about the worst case scenario.

There's still also her missing in action Uncle Qrow.

She always thought she knew. Ever since she could remember, her uncle had never gone without his flask. He has it on him more than he does his own weapon. It was just so normal for him that it was an extension of himself. She thought she had understood that— had accepted his alcoholic tendencies. But with the way he is now, it's become more of an integral part of him rather than just an extension.

He wasn't just consuming alcohol anymore— he was letting it consume himself.

It was unnerving to see him like this. To see him so hopeless and detached. They've already escaped the Apathy Grimm but they didn't need the Grimm to be apathetic, Qrow most of all. It was disheartening to watch him drown himself into oblivion.

It was _frustrating._

Ruby doesn't get it but she wants to. She gets that her uncle basically found out that everything he believed in was a lie and that person he devoted his life to is a fraud, and yes, she won't ever understand what that truly feels like. What she doesn't get is why would he give up just like that when there were more important things to do?

They've been hurt before. They've been lied to and betrayed before and it's not a stretch to say that maybe Ozpin won't even be the last. But did they just roll over? No, they shouldered that pain and got up. Whatever life threw at them, knock them over with it, they took the hit and walked it off. They'd always get up because they had to.

They had to get back up again. As long as they could pick up the pieces, they'd get themselves together and then get up again.

They always get up no matter how many times they'd get knocked down on the ground.

* * *

"We can cover more ground if we split up."

This was what Blake had suggested an hour into their search. Logically speaking, it made sense. They weren't out here to fight but to look for their missing friend so staying together was counterproductive... unless they were expecting a fight. Ruby hoped that wasn't the case. So in this case, Blake was onto something.

It was a good idea.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ruby objected anyways with a frown. "I don't want us splitting up."

The last thing she wanted was to potentially search for more missing people.

"We'll just go in pairs to be safe," Blake reasons, already reading their leader's concerns and addressing them.

"But..." Ruby chews the inside of her cheeks, trying hard not to let her fears show. "What if something happens?"

 _What if something_ bad _happens and I'm not there?_

The follow up question goes unspoken but the whole team heard it anyways.

"Then we can just contact each other through our scroll," Weiss reassures her with practical reason.

"Yeah, don't stress yourself too much. We can take care of ourselves." Yang seconds with a confident grin. "That reminds me, we really need to get that kid a scroll."

"Yang and I will take this side of town then you and Weiss can take the other, does that sound okay to you?" Blake asks in a gentle tone and Ruby almost misses the way Yang stiffens at the suggestion for one fleeting moment then acts as if it didn't happen at all.

She'll deal with that later if she has to but for now, finding Oscar was their priority.

"Okay," Ruby finally concedes. She breathes in deep and exhales.

It's a risk. She knows it's a risk to split up especially when there are Salem's people still out to get them but it's a calculated risk, sort of. Is there anything without risk anymore? At least this will be one of those lower risks. Hopefully.

For someone on a hopeless path, Ruby has been hoping a lot more lately.

"Okay just promise me you'll message us as soon as _anything_ happens," She says with sudden steel in her voice.

"Only if you promise to do the same, sis." Yang pulls her in for a brief hug.

It doesn't last long but it is reassuring enough.

"We do." Ruby looks to her partner who nods in agreement. She turns back to the other half of the team and as their leader she commands, "We'll regroup here in another hour. Keep your scrolls ready if you see him or if anything happens."

Everyone gives her their own signs of compliance, a nod from Blake, an thumbs up from Yang, an okay from Weiss, and even Ruby hardens her face into resolution.

"Let's go Team RWBY!"

That was half an hour ago.

The good news was that nobody called yet so nothing bad has happened. The bad news was that nobody called yet so nothing good has happened either.

Ruby really wished her Uncle Qrow was sober or at least would answer his phone. They could use a bird's eye view for the search, literally. But _no,_ not today. He was passing out on his birdlike talents just so he could be human and drunk on who knows where.

So they had to rely on themselves for this just like they had to whenever there was no adult to supervise them.

Fine. It's not the first time it's happened and they made it out just _fine._

She hastens her pace without her semblance just in case she'll miss Oscar in her rush. She does however make sure to stomp out that anger with every step rather than let it control her. It's not enough.

 _Keep calm._ She reminds herself that she's out here to look for her friend and not to throw a fit on her absent uncle no matter how much she wants to.

Maybe later.

She looks forward and looks up to see a park that she hasn't checked yet. She tries her odds there and not for the first time tonight, she hopes to see a familiar face in the crowd.

She doesn't find who she's looking for but she doesn't expect what she finds either.

IN HONOR OF PYRRHA NIKOS

It's Pyrrha... except it's not. It's her but in memorial, in stone. After all, the real Pyrrha didn't make it back here. The real Pyrrha was last seen back in Beacon, on top of that tower, with an arrow through her heart. The real Pyrrha was already gone, scattered in the wind like dust all because Ruby didn't—

"I'm sorry. Sorry... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry."

She knew this wasn't the real Pyrrha but she wept for her all the same.

Pyrrha didn't deserve to die like that. Neither did Penny. Nor anyone else. No one else should suffer the same fate not if they could do something about it. That's why Ruby had to fight. That's why she had to get back up again. That's why they had to try.

 _If not for us, then for the people we've already…_

 _For the people we haven't lost yet._

It scares her. It absolutely terrifies her to think that the more they fight, the more often they put themselves at risk of losing another. She remembers Uncle Qrow suffering through days with venom that almost killed him. She remembers Blake with the Apathy just within an inch of her life. She remembers Weiss bleeding on the floor.

She remembers so much blood.

She remembers taking off Jaune's hands only to see an unsettling large hole in Weiss' dress despite the absence of the wound. But she remembers there being so much blood on the floor for a wound to not have existed. She doesn't know what exactly pierced her partner but she could only imagine.

She remembers the arrow that pierced Pyrrha— the arrow that ended her.

She imagines that same arrow had pierced Weiss.

She had imagined the worst.

When Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder, she knew from touch alone whose hand it was. And that's all it took. She turned and almost painfully, she fell onto her partner and bawled. She cried and Weiss held her in silence, letting her presence speak of the comfort she needed.

She's so grateful that _that_ was a day where reality had been kinder than her imagination.

She didn't know how long she cried but it sure felt like forever. But she did eventually pull away, wiping away the tears and snot and traces of her moment of weakness. From the corner of her eyes, she could see that Weiss wanted to get her to talk and Ruby obliged.

"I didn't know she had a statue here."

It's just not the conversation she knows her partner was going for.

"Me neither," Weiss answers evenly and Ruby sends her a tired smile for dropping what would have been a heavy topic which wasn't a priority right now. Still Weiss continues, "But I can't say it's not unexpected."

"Why would you say that?"

"She graduated the top of her class at Sanctum Academy. She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row. Everyone loved her and this is where she trained."

Ruby blinks. It feels almost normal hearing Weiss list off facts like this, almost as if they were back at Beacon when they were still just students without the weight of the world riding on their shoulders.

"How do you know all this stuff?"

She shrugs. "I was a fan of hers, remember?"

"Oh." Ruby doesn't know what else to say other than what's on her mind, "I just thought it was a Weiss thing."

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?"

The sudden sharpness to her tone really does take her back to Beacon days. Except they're in Argus right now and the sharpness has dulled to an almost affectionate softness or at least Ruby would like to think so.

"You're Weiss." Ruby starts and she would have ended her explanation there if not for the insisting look her partner was sending her. She shrugs and continues, "You're smart. You just know stuff."

"I hope you're not joking." Weiss gives her a scrutinizing gaze.

"I'm not," Ruby answers, lacking any humor. She's too tired for jokes anyways.

That conversation ends abruptly if not on an awkward note. They don't leave just yet. Instead they stay and continue to pay their respects in silence. There's something about memorials that demand silence that Ruby has never quite understood until now.

They just stand there in the presence of the statue— in the absence of their friend.

Surprisingly, it's Weiss who breaks the silence.

"When I finally got into Beacon, I wanted everything to be perfect."

Ruby turns her gaze towards her partner but Weiss keeps hers trained on the statue of their fallen friend.

"Perfect grades, perfect team, perfect..." She pauses, her eye twitches almost imperceptibly if only Ruby wasn't looking. Weiss almost looked at her with the final word, "Partner."

That kind of stung but Ruby knows better that Weiss has more to say and something tells her that this isn't about her anyways.

"When I first saw Pyrrha, I saw her as an... opportunity." Weiss grimaces at her own admission, truly disdainful of her past prejudice. "I realize now how backward thinking that was of me and if I could, I would have handled that with more tact and respect for another human being."

There's a grave shift in her tone that Ruby picks up on with acute awareness.

"That's all Pyrrha was really."

Weiss slowly turns her gaze towards her partner. Haunted.

"No matter how great she was, she was only human."

Now it was Ruby's turn to avert her gaze and stare at stone.

"Pyrrha was the strongest of us all."

She was the strongest and yet—

The enemy was still _stronger._

"You're only partially right," Weiss gently corrects her. "It's true that Pyrrha was the strongest among us in terms of individual strength but she wasn't exactly fighting with the best odds when she... when she went up there."

Ruby waited for Weiss to finish what she was trying to say. She waited and waited and waited with all her patience. But Weiss didn't pick up where she left. That didn't sound right to her. It's not like Weiss to start a lecture and not end it with a lesson. Wasn't that the whole point of lectures? Of 'Weiss lectures' especially?

However when Ruby finally lifted her gaze to look at her partner, that's when she realized that Weiss was waiting for her all along.

Without breaking eye contact, Weiss places her hand on her partner's shoulder, gentle to not hurt yet still firm to refuse Ruby of any escape. Whatever Weiss needed to say, she was adamant that it was what Ruby needed to hear.

"Pyrrha was strong but she was her strongest when she was fighting alongside her team."

It's such a Weiss thing to force a lecture on her and it's such a Ruby thing for her to listen and learn.

"Don't worry, Ruby. Team RWBY won't leave your side for a second. I promise."

She couldn't help but chuckle when Weiss threw her words back at her. It's strange because she's laughing and yet her vision has gone all blurry again.

It's honestly a relief that she doesn't have to do this alone.

"And Team JNR?" She asks quietly, almost hesitantly.

"Will join us when they're ready," Weiss answers with the confidence her leader had faltered in.

Ruby asks, still hesitant but now with reignited hope, "You think they'll ever be ready?"

"I don't think _any_ of us will ever be ready," She deadpans.

"Weiiiiss."

"But they'll come around," She offers as consolation. When Ruby still doesn't look convinced, she gives her shoulder a good reassuring squeeze. "I mean, we did. Eventually."

Eventually just so happened to be sooner.

"Together?" Ruby asks once more just to be sure.

"As if there's any other way."

The sheer faith in Weiss' answer has Ruby almost choking up. So she continues in her stead.

"You're the leader, aren't you? You're going to need your team to lead."

Her hand travels higher until it wipes off the warm tears still falling from Ruby's eyes. When Weiss smiles, it's tender and trusting and Ruby feels more tears fall with warmth that spreads through her. It feels warm like hope.

"We're ready when you are."

It's been a long day but Ruby finally finds her smile. It's a mixture of relief and lingering pain but it is genuine. It's a comeback.

"I'm combat ready!"

They'll do this. They can do this.

For themselves. For Pyrrha and for Penny. For everyone who was lost in this senseless war. For everyone who they still haven't lost.

This is their fight and they'll face this together.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Happy new year everyone! 20gayteen may be over but the gays are here to stay forever!_

How was your holidays? Have you read **'You Need A New Family'** the merry fic we deserve? Well it's my holiday gift to y'all so go give it a read! :D

This chapter's a bit different. For starters it's **4k words again**. Wow. Half of it was written before the episode even aired as a precaution in case I got too busy for the holidays which did happen but I was also so stressed that I wrote the other half instead of sleeping. I needed this comfort okay.

Really enjoyed the episode's exposition! Every scene was so well written! But also! So that Pyrrha memorial huh :')

Ruby is MAD and I am LIVING. This girl has to bench press two teams, mentor a farm boy child, restrain a sassy old grandma from raising the ratings any higher AND tell off her deadbeat uncle who never learned anything from drinking during the whole Apathy fiasco.

We've always seen her happy and heartbroken sides but now we get to see her angry and frustrated sides and I really am loving them! She stood up for her teammate and for the whole merged team and truly took charge as the leader! I'm so proud of her! Keep on growing stronger, Ruby!


	10. Partners in Crime

**Partners in Crime**

* * *

"Are you worried about the plan?"

After much deliberation and too much legal protests from Weiss, they finally agreed on a plan. There's not much to say after that so the group naturally split and drifted into their own spots in the household.

There's Nora on the sofa pestering Oscar on his new outfit, with Ren giving his own compliments in a much tamer manner. There's Jaune in the kitchen talking with his sister Saphron who seems proud of his ingenious if not criminal idea and his sister-in-law Terra who reluctantly approves its questionably legal methods as well. There's Yang and Blake on the floor playing with baby Adrian as Maria watches over them with a smile. There's Qrow by the stairs looking forlornly at the rest of them.

Then there's Ruby and Weiss on the other sofa. They sat beside each other, knees bumping mostly on Ruby's lack of concept of personal space, or so Weiss reasoned. Weiss has grown used to such contact from her partner and now dare she say, _fond_ of it. She doesn't dare though.

But this wasn't about that. They were discussing something much more distressing.

"What's not to worry about the plan?" She scoffs and ignores the way that Ruby presses closer in concern. She continues, "When we signed up to save the world, I didn't think that criminal activities would be in the job description."

Ruby nods in sympathy. "Does the stealing part bother you that much?" She asks in a tone that implies that she herself isn't that much bothered by it.

It only exasperates Weiss further.

"Oh, _no._ Of course not. I am definitely _not_ bothered at all," She answers with her voice practically dripping of sarcasm. She adds in one lengthy breath,

"The stealing part doesn't bother me. Nor does the hijacking a tower part bother me. And I am definitely above being bothered over the fact that we are going to become criminals at the end of the day if we're lucky and if we're not, we're going to become criminals behind bars."

Then she looks at her partner with the most deadpan face she's ever had to pull off together with the flattest tone that only the most exasperating of conversations has ever called for.

"So no. I am totally not bothered by this at all."

She thinks that Ruby will finally get the message.

Ruby just stares at her for a few seconds, absorbing her words most likely. She opens her mouth but the words that come out don't match what Weiss had been expecting in her head.

"Oh, okay then."

And just to rub it in, Ruby has the _gall_ to actually make a move to stand up and leave her be. Just like that. It's as if she just didn't unload her woes on this whole plan. The nerve of her!

She pulls her back down beside her albeit much too forcefully and their sides meet with more than just a bump. She hisses, "Seriously? You're just going to leave me after saying all that?"

"Um, yeah?" Ruby looks at her as if she was the unreasonable one. "You did say you weren't bothered so why bother you, right?"

Well that's...

She's not wrong, Weiss supposes.

But that doesn't mean she couldn't have read between the lines!

"You're insufferable." Weiss scowls and shoves her annoyingly logical at the wrong times partner.

She almost laughs at the comical way that Ruby stumbles. Almost. She reminds herself that she's still mad and she wants to be petty. The adorable pout that Ruby wears after isn't helping though.

And oh dear, no. She's doing that puppy dog face, the one with the eyes. Yes, _that_ one. Now Weiss feels like she just kicked a puppy—

An overgrown dolt of a puppy.

"So if all that stuff you just said doesn't bother you, then what does?" Ruby probes with sudden interest, still not letting up her pout.

"Nothing. I already said that I'm not bothered," She huffs. With crossed arms, she turns her head away. That pouting look has more power than Weiss can hope to overcome so it's in her best interest that she doesn't face it.

"No, you are," Ruby insists and pokes her on the cheek. "You're still making that face."

"I do _not_ make _that_ face!" Weiss brushes off the intrusive hand away with a seething scowl.

"Yeah you do." She pokes her again on the same cheek and this time Weiss whips her head to deliver a scathing reprimand only to have the words fail her at the unexpected seriousness she sees in her partner.

It's only then that Weiss realizes that this must be what Ruby had intended all along.

"Is it the part where you basically hand yourself over to them?"

She doesn't respond at first but her non-answers says it all.

She maintains her expression unreadable but she can't say the same for Ruby's. She keeps her gaze on her partner and watches as Ruby's eyes soften. She's too preoccupied by the comforting silver gaze to even notice her partner's hands reach over to cover hers.

She thinks that if she looks close enough, she could see a shine to those eyes that she hasn't put a name on yet.

"Weiss, we've been over this. You're not going in alone."

Ruby reiterates in that same soft tone that she's now come to associate with the word 'promise'.

Specifically, 'Ruby's promise' to her.

With her partner's brightest grin she adds, "Besides, you have Maria with you!"

Weiss' reflexive eyeroll brings her back to the reality of her problems. "Right, because bringing an almost blind old woman to pilot the plane makes me feel _so much_ safer."

"I know she's no Team RWBY but she is on _our_ side." She gives her clasped hands an affectionate squeeze. "And it won't even be for that long. You won't even notice we were gone because before you know it, Team RWBY will be back together at your side!"

 _"I promise!"_ Weiss finishes it with Ruby's voice in her head.

Lately she's been hearing Ruby a lot in her head. Back in isolation she had chalked it up to her missing her partner's troublesome company. But now even with her so close, the voice hasn't quite left her in peace. If anything, she even hears it more clearly.

It could get annoying at times because Ruby's voice isn't exactly the voice of reason but more like the brave bordering crazy voice of untested ideas.

But for all those times that Weiss' inner Ruby voice wasn't annoying, it was... reassuring.

Comforting— just like her leader, partner, and best friend had always been for her.

"I know." She lets out a deep and troubled sigh. Lately she feels as though she's been sighing more than breathing. It certainly felt as though their problems kept on piling enough for her to feel this deeply. "I'm just worrying too much about this."

In response, Ruby lightly bumps their shoulders.

"Well that's kinda your job so it's nothing new."

"And since _when_ has _what_ been my job?"

"Since we became partners," She says it so surely that it must be a fact. "That's our thing. My job is to come up with all these crazy plans and your job is to worry over every single detail of my plans."

Weiss frowns. "That doesn't sound like a very helpful job."

"But it is! Plenty helpful!" Ruby practically bounces in her seat and even raises their clasped hands high in joy. "Your job is to keep me in check and make sure the plans aren't too crazy!"

"It's a full time job unfortunately." She tries to at least look disappointed by such a fact but her partner laughs as if she sees right through her ruse. She probably does.

"You know, if I hold my breath long enough, I just might be able to squeeze in with Maria!"

"And where did you hear that painfully wrong advice on how size compression works?" Weiss just shakes her head.

These ideas of her much too creative partner just keep getting crazier with each new one.

"Besides, I don't think you'll fit in anyways as long as Maria is insistent on bringing those cashews of hers. Why she would want to bring a bag with her specifically for this mission, I hope to never understand."

"Yeah, she was pretty..." Ruby's face scrunches as she thinks of the proper word to describe that. "Persuasive about bringing food with her."

Persuasive is putting it lightly. She wasn't just adamant, she was _resolute._ She practically said, "You either get me and these cashews in that luggage or you'll just be getting emotional baggage from this old woman!"

And who were they to deny a senior citizen's request or rather demand? They weren't monsters.

"She must really like her cashews!"

"Oh, believe me, I do!"

...

That was not a flashback voice as far as Weiss can recall. Beside her, even Ruby seemed surprised by the unexpected to be heard opinion. They both turn their heads toward the third party who wore a grin as wide as her face.

"Were you eavesdropping on us this whole time?" Weiss just had to ask although she could already infer what the answer was.

"Don't flatter yourself too much." Maria scoffs and gestures to the rest of the participating audience. "Practically everyone else can overhear you. If you really wanted privacy then you should have taken this talk outside."

"No! Don't talk outside! I can't hear through glass!" Nora objects without missing a beat...

Which only proves Maria's point that basically everyone else was listening in.

"Nora, what did we talk about respecting other people's privacy?" Ren holds back his too invested girlfriend.

"But Renny! They were just getting to the good part!" She pouts but it melts into a smile when Ren boops her on the nose. "Awww."

"So cute!" Ruby comments at the couple's display, clearly oblivious to the issue that only Weiss seems to be concerned about.

"Okay, so has anyone else been listening in on us?"

"Umm..." Surprisingly, the admission comes from a less troublesome member of their group.

"Not you too, Oscar," Weiss groans.

She could expect this kind of behavior from Maria and Nora and Yang even but to think that even Oscar is exhibiting less tact just shows that they must be corrupting the poor boy.

To his credit, he looks sincerely apologetic for his misdeed. "Sorry but you kind of have a... distinct voice that's hard to filter out."

Nevermind, whatever neutral opinion she had on Oscar, she's taking it back.

"Pfft!" Yang snorts. Of course, she just had to join in the discord. "He means your voice is _annoying,_ princess!"

"That's not what I said!" Oscar cries out in a panic.

"That's pretty much what you said in no uncertain terms," Blake clarifies much less to Oscar's defense and more so to poke fun at the Ice Queen who looks just about ready to have a meltdown.

But before Weiss could even defend her case, her partner already springs to protect her honor.

"Yeah! Weiss' voice isn't annoying!"

"Thank you, Ruby—"

"It's Weiss who's annoying! But only sometimes!"

"...No thanks, Ruby."

"I think Weiss' voice is actually pretty!"

"T-Thank... you… Ruby."

Weiss is pretty sure her face is red for a different reason now.

"I don't see what the big deal is. What's new about Ruby and Weiss talking?" Jaune walks in from the kitchen with the married couple trailing behind.

"Two girls talking in my home? Scandalous," Saphron teases with a knowing smile.

"Think of the example they're showing our kid," Terra seconds as she leans her shoulder on her wife.

"Goo gah!" Even the young Adrian pipes in as if understanding their implications.

Sometimes Weiss forgets that it's not just her and Ruby, but her and Ruby and ten other people plus a baby in the house.

Well there's still Qrow who hasn't spoken since Ruby rebuked him and that was way before they had dinner. Weiss isn't the type to invite teasing but if that would get him to at least say something then she would have endured it. She knows how much her partner would have appreciated it if he wasn't isolating himself.

Is it asking for a miracle to have him speak and maybe even possibly save her from this embarrassing conversation?

"Oh! I got it! I just had an idea!" Ruby suddenly starts shouting. She's either ignorant or just ignoring the obvious attention that she's attracting and instead focuses her own attention on Weiss.

Sometimes Weiss wishes she could be as carefree as her partner when it comes to other's opinions.

She tries though. And so she redirects her focus solely on her expectant partner, "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret asking you what it is?"

"Please?" Ruby pleads and pulls off the puppy dog face again.

That look seriously has too much power.

"Ugh, fine." Weiss gives in and she almost doesn't regret it when she sees Ruby practically beam in joy. She won't celebrate with her just yet but at the very least she gives her a warning, "But this better be a good one."

Ruby nods all too enthusiastically, excited at her own ingenious idea.

"How about we get you a second suitcase!"

Okay, so far tame for a Ruby plan.

"Why would I need a second suitcase?"

"To fit me in, of course!"

And there it is. Two sentences from her and Weiss already has so many reasons on why she should disagree.

"Ruby, don't you think they'll find it suspicious that I have so much luggage despite flying alone?"

"Why would that be suspicious? You're Weiss. You always have tons of stuff! It's kind of a given!"

"Geez, thanks for the vote for character." Weiss scowls.

It bounces off of Ruby's honest grin. "You're welcome!"

Ruby's innocence is a fine line between endearing and infuriating at times.

"But in all seriousness, Ruby. We are not going to get another suitcase just for you to fit in," Weiss insists in her non-negotiable tone.

"Aww, why not?" Ruby whines. "We're already doing that for Maria."

"Which I'll remind you is unnecessary when I could just punch the enemy in the face!" Maria comments from the side.

"Shush, sassy granny! Let the other ladies speak!" Nora hushes the opinionated old woman to eavesdrop better.

Weiss pretends she didn't hear anything or anyone else.

"Wait, tell me again why one of us can't come with you as support. I mean I get why not with Blake—" She pauses to turn her head and address their friend. "No offense, Blake. It's not you with the problem. It's just that Cordovin's..."

Maria takes it as her responsibility to add colorful words, "She's a racist bi—"

"Bad person!" Ruby interrupts just in time.

"No, let her finish." Yang joins in on the roast with a sneer. "When all of this blows over, we're gonna finish that _bitch._ "

Blake meanwhile just shakes her head at her friends' antics although she does appreciate their sentiments. "None taken, Ruby. Go on with your question for Weiss."

Ruby sends Blake a small smile then returns her inquiry to her partner. "So, yeah. Why can't I just tag along as your plus one?"

Why not, indeed. It's not particularly difficult to explain _why_ , it's more of a matter of _how._

How to explain this _delicately_ to her?

"Ruby, no offense, and I truly do mean no insult on you when I say this that Specialist Cordovin won't approve of your added presence, if not by association with Blake—" Weiss takes a breath to turn to their faunus friend. "No offense."

"Again, none taken from any of you," Blake says offhandedly.

"Right, well the thing is, Ruby, she won't take too kindly on you perhaps not by your race but rather by your..." She waves a hand, hoping that Ruby would at least finish the sentence for her.

She just receives a confused stare much to her chagrin. There's no way out of this. She'll have to say it explicitly then.

"Financial standing," She finally finishes for her less articulate partner.

There's a pregnant pause that stretches for a few seconds before the words kick in.

"She's racist against the poor?!"

Weiss flinches at her partner's rather loud but understandable outburst. "The proper term is 'discriminatory' but yes, basically that."

"Okay, _yikes._ " Ruby shudders in disgust and Weiss notices the nods of agreement from the rest of the group. "She's even more of a stuck up bully but we can still work with this. New plan!"

Oh, no. Ruby looks even more determined than before. This could only mean that her new plan will probably be even crazier than the last one.

"If I can't go as luggage and I can't go as another passenger..." She scrunches her face like when she does when she's racking her brain. The pain gets wiped off as soon as an idea hits her. "Then how about I go as something else?"

"Something else? What else is left for you to be?" Weiss still can't believe that she said those words herself.

"Don't they allow exceptions? Like medically?" She expounds her master plan, "I could just go with you as myself and if they stop you, you could just say..."

Ruby then heightens her pitch in a poor imitation of Weiss' voice.

"Ma'am, that's my emotional support partner."

…

So that's... Well that certainly is something.

This has got to top Weiss' list of Ruby's crazy plans she's forever grateful to have never reached execution.

"Wow. Where do I even begin?"

"You could begin with a 'Wow, Ruby's back at it again with the awesome plans! Thank you, oh wise leader!'"

"No, definitely not that." Weiss flicks her smug partner on the forehead. "First of all, they only allow that for animals, you dolt."

Ruby may have the most convincing puppy dog _face_ but she's no actual puppy.

"Second, just how did you even get this idea?" Weiss sends her a judging look.

To which Ruby only sheepishly replies, "Well, I maaay have learned a trick or two on how to maximize Zwei from my dad."

So Jaune has an affinity for crime apparently. Blake is an ex-terrorist with a list of criminal offenses that no one has reason to ask for. Yang has most likely gone past the speed limit and maybe some other unnamed crime that Weiss would be left off better without knowing. Nora has probably broken someone's legs for real and Ren would have been an accomplice if not accessory to the crime. Now she finds out that Ruby uses Zwei under false pretenses.

Unbelievable. Is she the only good upstanding citizen of their group?

And _no,_ the house she burned down at Brunswick does _not_ count as arson. That was obviously not a crime, she was doing them all a _service._

But then again, there was that one time she surreptitiously boarded a cargo plane and she's pretty sure that's illegal no matter how much she paid for it. They didn't get caught, not by people at least, but that doesn't excuse the crime… even though she was desperate and had plenty good reason for it.

 _Oh, no._ It only dawns on her now that she's just as much prone to criminal activities as the rest of them. Since when has their group of hunters and huntresses in training devolved into a hodgepodge of crime?

She pinches the bridge of her nose, hoping to stop the incoming headache. "You know what? I can't even remember what I was so worried about anymore."

To anyone else, it would have been taken as a snub but not to Ruby. Weiss doesn't know what she intended that to be but Ruby takes it as if she's just won a prize.

"You're welcome, Weiss!"

And maybe that was Ruby's plan all along— to get her to stop worrying so much.

Does that stop her from worrying again later? No. Did it at least make her feel better now during her temporary lapse in memory? Yes. And that much is enough.

After that lengthy discussion, Weiss feels the exhaustion catch up with her. Now that she isn't worrying, she's just tired. She feels her head droop slowly until it eventually rests on her partner's shoulder. She closes her eyes and lets the comforting presence soothe her.

"How are you so okay about this?"

She feels Ruby rest her head lightly on top of hers. Her reply comes out soft and Weiss almost misses it but after all is said and done, the words linger between them like a blanket that lulls them to a peaceful sleep.

"'Cause I believe we're gonna be okay."

Anything could go wrong tomorrow.

But at least some things went right today.

* * *

 **A/N:** Originally this was supposed to be just Ruby and Weiss but then I realized how hard it must be to get some privacy when they're basically 12 and a half people crammed in that house. It just made more sense that they'd be chilling close after the scare of splitting up. Plus sassy grandma needs to speak.

Hear me out, what if the zippers on Adam's outfit are actually functional? Do you know how impractical and stupid that would be? Not to mention funny? He has sleeves that open only halfway, you can't even get them off! But that's not the best part. Notice the zipper on his chest? It's a boob window. **You cannot unsee it anymore you're welcome :D**

Not much white rose unless you count Weiss panic-calling Ruby (that counts!) I was practically hearing the bees buzzing in my ears in this ep but the real MVP here is Maria who hijacked a plane by going in through the luggage yet still deliberately brought cashews with her just so she could roast the racist gremlin. Power move. What an icon. Legendary.

 **UPDATE:** For those who have watched ep11, PLEASE TALK TO ME. I'M FUCKING SCREAMING. Tell me how do I follow up on that? AAAAAAAAA

 _Shoutout to the non-account reviewers Toolazytologin (thanks mate that name made me smile) and Spyro,_ I can't PM back but know that I would and that I am grateful for the reviews!

Spyro my bro, you're right that I did dance around the connection between Weiss and Cinder in the last chapter. I'm going with the assumption that Weiss is aware that Cinder is responsible for Pyrrha's death but she doesn't truly understand just how much it's affected Ruby. Since I wrote it from Ruby's POV, you can't tell what exactly is going on in Weiss' mind during the conversation but it's only natural to assume that Weiss thought that Ruby was thinking more about Pyrrha. That and when you're concerned about your friends, the last thing you think of is yourself so Weiss might not have realized the connection (she was unconscious when Ruby saw her critically injured so she missed out on seeing the fear and then anger on her face) Hope that clears things out! It's always nice hearing from you! Thank you!


	11. Drop The Other Shoe

**Drop The Other Shoe**

* * *

Ruby was falling.

Not even her semblance could save her from this. There's a slight chance of survival when it comes to plummeting into water versus solid ground but at this height it might as well not matter. She still hopes though because at this point, hoping is the only thing she could do while falling.

And she was falling so fast.

Blue. She was plummeting into blue. It's a dark and murky blue telling just how deep those waters are and how deeper in trouble she is. Blue fills in her vision and will soon engulf her. She sees perilous and inevitable blue coming in at an alarming speed.

She falls faster than the seconds that drop by. She is plummeting so fast that her fall has now become a dive except this is not a dive to swim but more of a plunge to the death. She had imagined her end before just never like this.

She sees her impending future, an all consuming darkened blue she has no choice but to fall into, closer and closer—

Until she sees a different blue. A lighter shade of blue, almost transparent but not quite.

Then she sees white.

She reaches her hand out before she even sees the rest of the colors.

"What if I hadn't caught you?!"

Then she sees Weiss.

And all is right in the world again.

The dangerous dark blue of the ocean has now been replaced with the safety of light blue in Weiss' eyes. The pale cream of her face is painted with worry and relief and chiding because of course Weiss would scold her out of concern. Her strikingly white hair billows in the wind, reminding her that though she is no longer falling, they are still moving.

They are still moving and they are moving _together._

She couldn't tell which of them was holding the other's hand tighter. They may be still flying but to Ruby, Weiss' hand feels like holding onto ground, solid and constant and _safe._

But the ground doesn't catch her the same way that her partner does. The ground doesn't catch at all, one could only either crash or land on it. Weiss doesn't give her either option as she had reached out first, ready to catch her, and caught her she did.

Of all the times that Ruby has fallen, she's grateful that this time safety caught her first.

"I knew you would!"

Ruby grins in that reassuring if not almost comical way that she knows would earn an eye roll from her high strung partner. It's only when Weiss turns around that Ruby finally releases her breath which she hasn't even noticed she's been holding in this whole time.

Did she know that Weiss would catch her?

Honestly, no. And that long agonizing uncertainty beforehand would no doubt haunt her later on.

She could still feel her heart plummeting. Weiss may have caught her but she hasn't quite caught her breath just yet. The battle is far from over but Ruby needs a little breather. She needs something to keep herself grounded.

So she latches onto safety.

Or more specifically, she clings to her partner. With adrenaline still trembling in her hands, she wraps her arms around Weiss' waist as she presses close to her back. She feels her partner stiffen at first and understandably so. That was quite the scare.

It terrified them both.

But that scare was over. The fight continues but at least that was one crisis averted. She didn't even have the time to think that if her partner would catch her before the worst could have happened. That doesn't mean she's not grateful after the fact.

Ruby presses her forehead lightly on Weiss' shoulder, then her lips. She feels her let out a heavy sigh too.

"I swear, when you aren't trying to kill yourself from your crazy plans then you're trying to kill me first from the stress," Weiss says it in that exasperated tone that could sound endearing enough if one digs deep enough under all those colorful words.

And Ruby just so happens to be fluent in that.

She smiles against her shoulder. "Eh, you'll live."

"Oh, I know _I'll_ live." She scoffs and places a hand on top of the two already on her stomach. "I just need to keep _you_ alive so that I could personally kill you for putting me in distress." She pinches her.

"Ow!" Ruby yelps and swats the hand away. She tightens her hold in retaliation and cries in disbelief, "You wouldn't!"

"I would," Weiss answers evenly as her hand returns to pat the spot where she had pinched her.

It only makes Ruby pout if not whine louder in her ear, "But you love me!"

"I never said anything of the sort," She smoothly deflects.

This however would have sounded more convincing if only Weiss had pushed away Ruby's arms around her waist— which she could have and which she still has not.

Ruby also happens to be fluent in the non-words aspect of the Weiss language.

"You don't have to say anything~" She squeezes her all too happily and then cooes, "It shooows!"

She doesn't see Weiss make a disgruntled face but she sure hears it. "Ugh, just shut up." She likes to think that she was blushing too.

Ruby would have pointed out that Weiss didn't deny it but she figures that they could revisit this discussion for when they're not in the middle of taking down a giant robot that's trying to kill them.

So for now, Ruby just holds onto Weiss.

She holds onto her tight with worries about their looming enemy. But more than that, she holds onto her tighter with thoughts of being safe despite that.

Because no matter how terrifying the fall, she trusts that her partner would be there to catch her like always.

* * *

Weiss was falling.

The shot came faster than her summon could dodge. As a result, they were blown away by the blast and from there they started falling. It happened so fast. One moment she was falling and then the next, she had crashed on the cliff.

However, not all of them made it to solid ground.

She hears the scream. It's not a scream of pain but it is just as alarming. It's a cry for help and the familiar voice pours ice in her veins. It's resounding and urgent, and it's all Weiss could hear even as it gradually but also quickly gets muffled by the growing distance. She hears her too far gone.

When Ruby fell, not even Weiss could catch her this time.

She feels her heart fall along with her partner.

* * *

 **A/N:** Did Ruby need to hold onto Weiss' waist? No. Did she want to? YES.

 _Psst! If you're looking for fun then why not try_ **'We Could Have Had a Mecha Fight'** _an alternate take on episode 11._

Let me begin this with a blanket statement: WAS THERE EVEN ANY MOMENT IN THE EPISODE WHERE WE DIDN'T SCREAM! RENORA! WHITE ROSE! THE BEES! WHITE ROSE! BUMBLEBEE MOWING ADAM! WHITE ROSE! WHITE! ROSE!

I swear I spent more time rewatching the episode rather than writing this chapter. I loved it all so much!

So it looks like the fight will be spread throughout the last three episodes and as a watcher, I'm totally fine with that. As this fic's writer, I have been torn on some creative choices. Do I write ALL of the good white rose moments from one part or do I save some for the next episode just in case there won't be any? Do I just write about what happened in the episode or do I add new content?

I hope that I made some good decisions with this. It's shorter than the recent chapters but I'm happy with the pacing. This feels like a nod to the first chapter roots of this fic. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this! We're down to the last chapters now, whew, see you next week!


	12. Protecting Red

**Protecting Red**

* * *

Ruby knew what she had to do.

They only had one shot at this. She just had to be practically staring down the barrel of the cannon that could obliterate her along with the plane if she timed it wrong. No pressure at all.

It's not that hard actually. She's already sniped a missile in the air going some thousand miles per hour so what's a semi-stationary missile launcher in comparison?

It's not that hard but it is a thousand times more terrifying that's what.

But she's faced more terrifying things out there and although this just might be her most difficult shot yet, she knows that she could do it. She has to do it. She _will_ do it.

So with no allowance for inaccuracy, she aims her own barrel.

Then she shoots—

And _misses._

She's sure she hit her target right on the mark, she just didn't expect the target to move.

They didn't plan for failure either.

She sees the cannon glow and crackle with threatening yellow. She sees and feels the charged shot just narrowly miss her had it not been for their plane swerving. She may have dodged that fatal shot but the plane takes the hit anyways.

She only had one shot and in failing so, they had to brace themselves for the fall.

* * *

"No..."

Weiss could only watch in horror as the plane spiraled down further and faster until it stops plummeting altogether.

Planes were built to fly, not to fall.

She doesn't hear herself gasp because all she hears is the deafening crash of metal against trees and rocks and everything not recommended for a plane to crash land on. This disastrous scene was all too familiar that it's like she's watching two crashes happen simultaneously.

She remembers her own experience of a plane crash. She remembers how she only made it out of that one through sheer luck. She tries to project that maybe Ruby has that same ridiculous amount of luck. She tries to think that maybe this will be the same for Ruby too and that her partner was okay.

She could comfort herself with all of these thoughts but it won't ever be enough to quell her worries until she knows for sure.

She's not the only person worried either. She hears the distraught footsteps, and then these steps turn into frantic flapping of wings. Before she could even follow, Qrow is already on a path towards the crash site.

For all of Qrow's talk of bad luck, Weiss only hopes that he brings back Ruby. Let them have at least that much good luck.

 _Please._ Even if only just that.

* * *

Ruby didn't think she'd get another shot at this.

Well actually she's the one who thought of this second shot and technically this isn't the same shot but still. That's just how it is. That's just how it's always been. Whenever things seemed impossible or when there was no other option left to take, somehow they still find something.

That's just what huntresses do.

She knew what _she_ had to do.

That's why it didn't terrify her so much now that she was inside the barrel of the enemy's gun. She was too busy looking at their goal for her to pay any attention to the danger right in front of her eyes. She is not throwing away her shot.

She takes a deep breath.

At least with this up close she definitely won't miss.

Then she pulls the trigger.

* * *

Weiss started running.

The moment she saw Ruby barrel herself outside of the Dust cannon, Weiss gunned for it.

What was her partner thinking?!

She always knew that her leader could come up with the craziest ideas in the heat of the battle but this? This was bordering suicidal.

And what sort of partner would she be if she just let her die?

Not today. Not _ever._

Weiss runs as fast as she could but Ruby falls faster.

She sees the telltale spiral of red, sees it crackle with painful yellow. She runs faster. She sees the distressing glow of crimson aura flicker out and Ruby falls at a rate faster than her exhausted body could take.

Weiss knows she won't make it.

But she'd be damned if she does nothing about it.

She summons forth black glyph after black glyph, and with every glyph that Ruby breaks through is another blow to her already depleted aura. She feels herself almost falling alongside her but she can't.

Not yet. Not until Ruby is safe.

Ruby is falling close to the cliff now and Weiss is nowhere near her. She'll never make it even if she runs. Luckily, she doesn't have to.

Qrow catches her partner and the relief mixes in with the exhaustion that has her knees buckle. She's out of breath and out of aura but it doesn't matter.

Her partner is safe now and that's all that matters.

"You okay, Weiss?"

She doesn't know how long she's been kneeling on the ground but apparently it was long enough for Ruby 'I just shot inside a Dust cannon and almost fell to my death' Rose to be back on her feet. She even has the gall to be the concerned one.

"Am _I_ okay?" She shoots back, still out of breath.

"Uh, yeah? That's basically what I asked." Ruby crouches to her level. For someone who just basically stared at a near death experience, she wasn't nearly as out of breath as Weiss was.

Ruby's total disregard of her own safety is exasperating at best.

"You..." Unbelievable. Weiss feels herself suddenly overcome with a different kind of rage. She may be out of breath but she always has reserves saved for reprimands. "You absolute dunce!"

With renewed strength, she smacks her reckless partner on the head.

"Ow!" Ruby yelps and then she tenderly rubs the new sore spot. "What d'you do that for?"

It's not the only injury that she'll be getting as Weiss rips a new one into her, "What was that? Just what were you thinking!"

"I was thinking of how to stop Cordovin," She defends herself. "And look! It worked!"

"You could have died!"

"But I didn't!"

"Only because I managed to soften your fall and Qrow caught you!"

"See! I knew you'd catch me!"

"That's not the point!"

Their bickering escalates faster than either expects. It escalates until Weiss is filled with so much frustration that words are no longer enough. She has to resort to action. So she raises her hand as if to beat some sense into Ruby and the leader winces even before the dreaded contact.

But it never comes or at least not in the way she expects.

Heavy arms leaded with exhaustion wrap around Ruby's shoulders as Weiss leans on her.

She's mad. She has every right to be mad. She's mad because she was worried. She was worried sick to the point of physical collapse meanwhile her partner makes light of it in a misconstrued way so that no one else worries over her. Not like that has stopped Weiss from worrying.

She should be mad.

But after all is said and done, she's just so relieved.

"Aw, if you needed help to get up you could have just said so!" Ruby teases as she slowly helps her partner stand with her, arms still sluggishly wrapped around her.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," It comes out more like a plea rather than her usual stern order. Weiss refuses to let go just yet.

She feels Ruby give her arms a firm squeeze.

"You know I can't promise you that," Ruby murmurs gently pat her head, comforting. "What I can promise is that I'm not gonna leave you. So don't worry so much, okay?"

Weiss scoffs and returns the sentiment, "You should know me better that I can't promise you that."

And maybe they don't need another promise.

When being there for each other is promise enough.

"With you as my partner, worrying is kind of a given."

"And with you as my partner, I have less to worry about!"

It's terrifying. The battles in store for them and the uncertainty of their future, it's all so terrifying. But that's just what they signed up for when they decided to become huntresses— to protect the people and to save the world.

Yet despite the terror, there are moments of comfort, of relief, of joy. And for every small victory, for every life not lost, they celebrate. They hold onto each other.

This battle is far from over but at least they're still together.

It's going to take more than that to keep these two apart.

* * *

 **A/N:** What's up danger?

Wow, this ep. Rest in pieces Adam fucking finally. Sure the murder will haunt them for the rest of their lives but at least the bees have each other for support. Now with that BULLy taken care of, hey uh can we talk about how Cordovitch has been actively trying to kill KIDS? What the fuck.

Ruby, my daughter, our brave huntress leader. She took a shot staring into the barrel of rocket launchers and then took a shot INSIDE a barrel of a dust cannon. She looked so tranquil when she took a breath and took that second shot. I felt that.

And Weiss has been worried sick. My heart ached when she let out a soft gasp and "no!" when the plane crashed. Then Weiss used the last of her strength to soften Ruby's fall? Fuck! I'M WEAK AND MY HEART JUST GAVE OUT!

 **For the First members on RT who have already seen the season finale...** _there're still two more chapters left in this fic to look forward to. Also feel free to start a riot with me in the reviews._


	13. Come a Long Way

**Come a Long Way**

* * *

"It's on the move again! We have to stop it!"

"What do we do?"

Everyone's eyes are on Ruby.

But Ruby's eyes are only on Weiss.

This is Ruby's trial by fire. Her silver gaze has been reforged in the infernos of one crisis after another and now her gunmetal eyes are solid as steel in resolve. There is no talking her out of this, Weiss realizes as her own blue eyes soften in that same fire and worry melts through.

Despite the risks, she knows better than to stop her partner.

"What's the plan?" She asks knowing that Ruby already has one. She hasn't even heard of it yet but she knows that she'll back her up no matter what anyways.

It will be reckless and at this rate, even life threatening. Which is all the more reason why she has to see to it that it works out.

"Weiss, can you summon a Lancer to take me to the Leviathan?"

Ruby almost pleads. Almost. She's trying hard to play off strong in front of them but Weiss can see through it. She can see behind steely silver, the fear mixed with the resolve and the fire.

It just shows how much of a last ditch effort this plan is. If this plan doesn't take flight then... well it's a good thing that Weiss doesn't disappoint.

"I don't have much aura left but I think I can manage." She also doesn't want to ruin the relief that just washed through their leader but she's not the type to withhold information. Especially the crucial kind. "There is _one_ complication though."

She doesn't miss the way Ruby's shoulders suddenly stiffen as if bracing for an attack—

Or the fall.

Despite this, Ruby soldiers on and asks, "What is it?"

"I'll have to be pouring my full concentration on it otherwise it might dissolve midair," Weiss explains, making sure that her partner hears and understands every word of it. "If we want the best shot at this then I'll have to stay here on the plane."

 _Here without you._

"I can't come with you."

 _You're going to be separated and alone—_

 _And I don't want that._

This whole time she hasn't taken off her worried eyes from her leader and partner.

She watches as Ruby's eyes shine with surprise, and watches as the shine dulls into sadness, and watches the dullness sharpen into determination, and watches on until the sharpness is tempered finally with understanding.

She watches Ruby come to terms with it faster than Weiss does. And it's only been a moment. Just one moment and so much has already passed between them.

And after this they'll be passing each other.

"That's okay. I'll be fine! You don't have to come with me, Weiss," She reassures her in that confidence that conveniently only rises when in the most dire of situations.

It's textbook Ruby and Weiss has studied it more than enough times that she has it memorized by heart.

"Besides, I don't really need someone with me out there." She looks away, it ironically only brings more attention to her unique eyes. "I'm the only one who can laser beam monsters with my eyeballs so it makes sense that I have to do this alone."

It was meant to sound lighthearted but Weiss could practically hear Ruby's heart heavy with responsibility.

Her partner is about to get out there and risk her life on her own again. It's too much of an obligation for just one person to shoulder. That's what she's here for. To lend her another shoulder to lean on when it gets too much, too heavy.

If Ruby is dead set on doing this then Weiss will do everything in her power to keep her alive.

"Think you can do it?" Weiss asks her, hoping to inspire that reckless confidence that her partner is known to answer with whenever challenged by her.

But rather than answer, Ruby finds herself questioning too.

"Can I?" She asks as if it's supposed to sound sarcastic but it falls flat with hesitance.

That's not enough.

"Can you?" Weiss insists in that tone that she uses whenever lecturing Ruby. She practically implores her to answer differently.

This time she better answer right.

"I… I can… I can try." Ruby's smile comes off as a grimace at best.

That's not what she wanted to hear.

"Wrong answer."

"W-What?"

"Quiet!" Weiss doesn't have time for a full blown lecture so she cuts to the important bullet points. "You listen to me, Ruby Rose. I'm only going to say this once so you better get it through your thick skull, okay? Okay."

She places a hand on her partner's shoulder, reminiscent of the strength and hope that Ruby had inspired in her when their roles were reversed.

"You _can_ do this."

She had told her this before on that day that defined all their days after. She'd say it as many times until her partner needs to hear it.

Weiss will always be worried for Ruby. That's just what she signed up for when they became partners. But doubt is not part of the package. There is no room for doubt not when there's no one else more trustworthy than her.

She can trust Ruby with her life, and more. She can trust her to do this too.

"You can do this and we're here to support you."

Weiss wants Ruby to believe in her partner who believes in her.

And when she sees her partner's eyes shine with unshed tears of understanding, she thinks that Ruby is actually starting to believe herself too.

"I can't come with you but know that you're not going at this alone."

Not alone. Not again.

This situation feels all too familiar, like something similar has already happened before. It reminds her of that day that Beacon fell. Weiss had sent Ruby up on that tower to face the Grimm alone.

She doesn't want another repeat of that.

This feels almost like a repeat but it's not. Not quite. She's not sending Ruby to face another huge Grimm all on her own. This time she's not really alone.

Not when Weiss' summon, a literal projection of her will, is going with Ruby every step of the way.

"You're right. How could I forget?" Ruby smacks her head for forgetting something so important. They both pretend to not see her discreetly wipe away at her eyes. "I have you, the bestest partner, to back me up!"

Her confidence returns and so does her smile.

"I'll thank you later."

"You better thank me later."

For now, Weiss only hopes that Ruby makes it in time.

* * *

"I just... I just needed a little more time."

Time. Even after everything she's been through, even when she's stronger than before, it's not enough.

She could use her semblance to pick up the pace but she can never be quick enough to make it in time.

If only she had more time then she could have gotten sooner and prevented Yang from losing her arm, instead of Ruby being not enough and too late and Yang cut and broken.

If only she had more time then she could have made it on top of the tower and blocked the arrow that shot through Pyrrha, instead of Ruby being not enough and too late and Pyrrha fallen away.

If only she had more time then she could have stopped the enemies from executing their plan and saved Penny, instead of Ruby being not enough and too late and Penny in pieces.

If only time was on her side.

"I know. And while you don't seek knowledge, just this once, I shall give it freely." Jinn's judgmental gaze doesn't relent even as she leans forward with crossed arms. This is non-negotiable. "I will not allow you to use me without a question again."

With that slap on the wrist done with, the pat on the back follows soon after.

Jinn's smile is full of mirth. "Even if this was clever."

Time has never been on Ruby's side but she's lucky that this magical being was on her side even if only just this once.

It's just her now—

Except not really.

Ruby may be the only moving person in this pocket of time but even on her own like this, other people can still move her in ways that matter most.

She closes her eyes. She hears only her own heartbeat at first, still frantically beating in her ears. She takes a deep breath. The fear slowly ebbs away until her panic is but an echo, washed away by the treasured memories that surface.

She remembers so many people. She remembers the people she loves and who love her in return. She remembers being happy and that most happy memories are those shared with others.

 _White is warm like coffee with cream and five sugars._

* * *

Ruby's legs buckle faster than the summon dissolves into white.

She didn't realize how weakened she was until she didn't have to be strong anymore.

She feels Yang already by her side, catching her and slowly lets her knees fold into a comfortable enough position on the floor. She doesn't think she'll be standing for a while and if her sister wasn't holding her, she thinks she might have preferred just laying altogether.

Across her Weiss is not looking any better. It's not like her to break proper form and the only exceptions are when she's truly too exhausted to do otherwise. She looks as though ready to collapse if it wasn't for Blake holding her together.

That's why she was so surprised when it was Weiss who started hoisting her up.

She didn't realize it at first. Ruby had her eyes closed in equal parts relief and exhaustion. Then she feels the touch. It's a different kind of touch yet familiar all the same. Upholding. And with just that single touch, the weight of what she had done was finally sinking in.

She did it. She actually _did_ it.

She did it just like her partner told her she could do it.

The comforting touch spreads into a hand on her shoulder, an arm wrapped around her back and shoulders, another hand on her other shoulder.

It doesn't just give her comfort, but also strength—

The strength to carry on.

Her own hand moves on reflex. She reaches for her partner's shoulder, her own arm wraps around their back and shoulders.

They both rise, lifting each other up.

"I told you so. You did it."

Weiss feels the weight of her partner, heavy and yet it feels like the most comforting weight in the world. She doesn't think she'll ever tire of lifting her not when some of that strength comes from her partner in the first place.

"I didn't do it alone. _We_ did it."

Ruby lets herself lean on her partner. She wants to remember this moment. She wants to treasure this memory where love had succeeded and life was protected. Because for the times that she wasn't strong enough on her own, her partner would be there to carry her on.

Though the body's weak and breakable, their spirit is indomitable.

And they'll catch that dream together someday soon.

They're rising like the moon.

* * *

 **A/N:** **SINCE CRWBY FORGOT TO ADD THAT SCENE IN THE OPENING TO THE FINALE, I HAD TO DO IT MYSELF :) YOU'RE WELCOME :))**

 _Can you count how many callbacks I snuck in here? :)))_

Wowsers. Where do I even begin with this finale? We got all those flashbacks and Ruby cheated with Jinn and we even got Summer! Then that moment with Qrow? Priceless. I love Ruby so much and I'm so proud of our scythe-toting daughter!

Weiss is definitely the MVP (Most Valuable Partner) this volume (and ever)! She's been powerlifting Ruby throughout the fight, fighting alongside her, catching her, supporting her through it all. Ruby's been pushing herself to the limit for the sake of everyone but Weiss? She's worried for Ruby and yet rather than stop her, she supports her with all her strength and then some more. Weiss pushes her exhausted self to the next level again and again just for Ruby and I think that's amazing.

I debated on whether or not include Ruby's scene with the silver eyes and the flashbacks (since I already did something similar back in Chapter 6) but I think that was already powerful enough as it is. But pardon me for indulging that one memory though *coughcough*

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT WHEN RUBY WAS MESSED UP, ONE OF THE FIRST THOUGHTS THAT BROUGHT HER BACK TO LOVING LIFE WAS WEISS' MOMENT WITH HER BACK IN V1 BECAUSE I'M CRYING. WEISS WAS LITERALLY LIFTING UP RUBY THROUGH HER SUMMON! AND SHE DIDN'T KNOW IT BUT SHE WAS ALSO LIFTING HER SPIRITS UP THROUGH THEIR MEMORY TOGETHER! WHITE ROSE BLOSSOMS!

 **What's this?! It's the last episode of the volume but... there's still one more chapter? It's more likely than you think!** I thought it would be nice to have something to cap off this crazy volume. So look forward to the bonus chapter next week!


	14. Later and After

**UNAIRED EP: Later and After**

* * *

They had won.

At the end of the day, they had somehow won. They had won and now they were long far gone from the danger or at least from that crisis. Although maybe calling it a win isn't exactly right.

They hadn't lost.

They had fought and fought hard they did, and they hadn't lost. They didn't lose to anyone and they didn't lose anyone. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

It's been a long journey with most of it spent feeling lost if not being lost but somehow they were still making their way.

They had to fight the Grimm that were after the relic, they had to fight the people who wouldn't hear them out, they had to fight amongst themselves over their exposed to be unreachable goal, and they had to fight with their own doubts. They had to fight so much. But after all that fighting, they came out stronger.

They came out stronger and together.

And maybe that's what made them so strong to withstand all those hardships. Had they been alone then they might have folded. But they weren't alone. They had each other. And there's a certain strength that one can only achieve in the support of others.

A person can be strong but a person connected to another person can be the strongest.

That's what defeated the Leviathan. It wasn't just the silver eyes although that did play a part. It was the desire to preserve life that powered the ability. It was the will of her and others combined. It was the people who brought her to this point.

To protect the world, you don't think about the world. You think about the people you want to protect. You start with love.

How cool was that? You get to laser beam monsters with your eyeballs through the power of love?

Ruby thinks it's the coolest thing since Crescent Rose.

But she knows she has to be careful too. Love can hurt you even if it wasn't that person's intention. Sometimes bad things just happen and every time, it hurts when bad things happen to good people.

That's why she signed up to be a huntress. That's what she's fighting for. She doesn't just fight to defeat evil, she fights to protect the good. She wants to prevent bad things from happening. She has to stop them because she can and because she has to try. She has to—

"Stop thinking so loud."

The command comes out of nowhere except not really. Ruby hears the disgruntlement from beside her. She turns her head and meets the awaiting gaze of her partner.

That's right. She almost forgot about Weiss. Ever since Weiss helped her stand up and move towards sitting securely with the other pair of the team, neither of them had let go of each other. Their arms had moved from shoulders and settled on waists, lightly draped behind in lingering touches.

They had been holding each other up before but now they were just side by side.

And Ruby had been so caught up with how natural it just felt— to have Weiss by her side as if there's no other place she'd rather be— that she had forgotten to be conscious of her presence. After all, her partner had this uncanny ability to read her sometimes.

"Stop listening on my thoughts."

She sticks out her tongue because a raspberry this close is gross and her partner is already grumpy as is. Weiss on the other hand, rolls her eyes at the childish antics.

This too feels so natural that they unknowingly fall back into routine.

"Stop being so difficult."

"Stop being so rude."

"Stop doing that."

"Stop doing what?"

"Ugh, you two. Stop. Stop being so cute."

They both turn their heads to the unexpected third party courtesy of Yang.

"And who asked for _your_ opinion?" Weiss narrows her eyes at the nosy blonde.

"No one asked you to be prickly and yet here we are," Blake smoothly comments which earns her a proud high five from Yang.

It also earns her a patented glare from the Ice Queen making a comeback.

"I don't have to take this." Weiss in her fit of defiance, almost crosses her arms. Almost. But to cross her arms would mean that she has to pull back her arm out from behind Ruby.

She doesn't.

"Yeah, we don't have to take this!" Ruby unnecessarily sidles up next to Weiss even though they're already close enough as it is. "Go bother someone else! We were having a moment!"

"A moment?" Weiss scrunches her face in confusion and Ruby tries hard not to let Weiss overhear her internal squealing over how cute she looked. Even when that confused look now turned deadpan, Weiss somehow made it look cute still. "We were arguing."

"Yeah! And that's our thing!" Ruby proudly declares it as if it's their greatest achievement in so far.

"Our... thing?" Weiss lets the word roll off her tongue as if she had accidentally drank Ruby's blasphemously sweet coffee. It takes her by surprise and by the throat. "H-How... why?"

Yang surreptitiously mutters in between a sudden coughing fit, "LQ."

It doesn't go past Blake's sharp hearing, her ears twitch along with her chuckles.

Weiss on the other hand, is not as amused. "I beg your pardon?"

"I said you have low IQ!" Yang guffaws. And before Weiss could have a meltdown, Yang raises her free hand as a show of surrender. "Alright, I'll back off. I'm good. I'll leave you two to your thing or whatever. Don't mind me."

It would have been nice if Yang had left it at that. However, this was not a perfect world.

"Just don't do anything I wouldn't do~" She even punctuates it with a playful wink.

Especially because of the coloring of her cheeks, Weiss would have none of that. "Just what are you insinuating?"

"Oh chill out, Ice Queen. That wasn't for you. That was just advice from me to Rubes." Yang tilts her head only slightly so just to give Ruby her full attention as she clarifies, "It's _Weissicle._ I wouldn't do Weissicle so write that down."

"But... Huh?" Ruby blinks. How is that even advice? Now she's just confused. "But you said that I shouldn't do anything you wouldn't do and you wouldn't do Weiss so that means—"

"It means we are not having this conversation!" Weiss cries, her voice pitching higher in the middle. In her panic to pull Ruby away from that train of thought, she had literally pulled her away from the devious blonde.

Coincidentally, the action only pulls Ruby closer to Weiss, practically hugging her much more intimately than she was willing to admit comfortable.

Nora hollers despite being just a few feet away, "She means that you should definitely do—"

"Do talking! Do er... Do continue talking! With Weiss! Yes, that's definitely what she means by that!" Jaune interjects just in time.

Just from that act alone, Weiss would have forgiven Jaune for every wrong thing he had done ever.

"Just keep doing what you do with Weiss," Ren reinforces with that sagely wisdom that may or may not come from being with Nora for so long.

"Oh... Okay?" Ruby still looks at everyone else, skeptical. "But why did you have to word it out so weirdly?"

Yang would have hit the last nail on the coffin but Blake squeezes their still entwined hands and smoothly says, "Oh, you know Yang."

There's a pregnant pause. And although she's obviously talking to Ruby, Blake only has her eyes on Yang for the delivery.

"She likes to make things hard to... _Yangderstand_."

...

And the greatest plot twist of the day officially goes to Blake.

The only people who weren't cringing were the ones too surprised to even process what just happened. That and... was Yang moved to tears?

"...Great." Weiss groans. She's unfortunately the first to recover. "What happened with you two must have been worse than what you told us if you're telling puns now. What's next? Yang living in a library?"

"What's wrong with a library?" Oscar asks and completely misses the whole point of the barb.

"Ha! You should be asking what's funny about a library." Maria guffaws from the pilot seat.

For an old woman who proclaims to be hard of hearing, she sure could hear fine from that distance when it comes to gossip and the like. She's definitely not hard of yapping.

"At least books have spines which is more than what half of the people on Remnant have. Actually make that two-thirds or just in general."

"Not you too." Weiss grouses. "Don't you dare enable them."

"Loosen up, mini-Ice Queen. Your fuse can't be as short as you are." Qrow must be feeling better now to join in with a jibe albeit it was at her expense.

"I am not _short!_ " She protests with no small amount of effort nor wounded pride. If she had been standing, she would have let her heels do the reprimanding. "And will you stop calling me—"

Shaking. Weiss was interrupted by shaking. For a moment, she thought that they had encountered turbulence. But it wasn't the plane shaking. No, the shaking was more localized, in particular, it was coming from the person she still hadn't let go of.

Ruby was laughing.

She wasn't just snickering or even trying to hide it. Ruby was genuinely laughing. It was such a carefree laugh too. It didn't sound like it came from a person who had just defied death so many times in one day. It sounded more like the day had only just begun and waking up on the wrong side of the bed was not annoying but rather hilarious.

"Don't tell me that you find this funny?" Weiss questions her partner's sense of humor with just the slightest frustration and implicitly she questions everything else with confusion.

"Funny? Pfft! Sure, why not?" Ruby lets out a few giggles and the sound of it is awe inspiring. And when she settles with a smile, it is mesmerizing. "But I was just thinking how nice it is."

Weiss actually pauses. It's just a casual conversation, another common string of words, a simple turn of phrase. And yet there's something different about it that she can't quite place.

Maybe it's in the way her voice softens after a good laugh. Maybe it's the serene look on her face like how the moon still rises even after having been broken. Maybe it's that shine in her eyes that have less to do with them being silver and more to do with the simple soul behind silver windows.

Whatever it is, it has Weiss captivated.

"Nice?" She repeats the word but it doesn't come out quite the same as when her partner had said it.

"Yeah, nice." There it is again. The word bounces happily from Ruby's lips and rings pleasant in their ears like bells. She lets out a content breath. "This. Us." Her smile ever glowing, she gestures to everyone on the plane.

Everyone's still here— _together._

"It's nice."

Ruby hums a tune that Weiss doesn't recognize but can relate to all the same. She doesn't need to see Ruby's fingertips in order to feel them tap freely on her hip. Tapping, a gentle reminder that she's here, she's here for her, she's here with her.

It's such a simple gesture and yet it's simple moments like these that are missed the most.

She thinks she finally understands.

"Yeah, it is nice."

And this time when Weiss says it, it sounds similar to what Ruby had meant.

Silence fills in the gaps. It's the kind of quiet that simply follows. A tranquil kind of quiet that drifts in after all the noise, the respite. No one talks for a while, no one has to. The silence doesn't give in to tension, rather it only brings out the peacefulness of just simply being in the company of others.

In the quiet, it's easier to hear one's thoughts.

"You remembered." Ruby starts and there's a long pause before she realizes that she had said that out loud. Upon Weiss curious gaze, the words just start flowing out, "You still remember how I take my coffee."

Weiss lets that memory linger in between them. She doesn't know where this line of conversation came from but she hopes to find out where it will lead to.

"How could I forget?" She pauses and a sideway glance reveals her partner listen with rapt attention. Her own lips upturn by the corners. "It's a blasphemous amount of sugar."

"I still remember it too..." Ruby speaks of it with such particular fondness. Like how warm a cup of coffee feels in one's hands and how warmer it is when it's been freely given to you.

They're not talking about just the coffee anymore.

"Good because I don't plan on forgetting it."

Their gazes lock. In their eyes they see the same memory, the same promise, the same feelings. Their eyes spoke more than their lips did.

"And you shouldn't forget it too." Weiss barely catches herself smile before she turns it into a smirk. "The coffee."

Ruby on the other hand doesn't hold back her brilliant grin. "But I never ask for coffee."

"You don't have to and you're welcome." Weiss notes with just a smidgen of smug pride,

"You don't have to tell me what to do, I already know. I'll fix you up a cup of coffee every time I see fit that you need it. And you will get the coffee that you deserve each time. Without fail."

Since when did coffee sound so serious? But Ruby already knows the answer to that. Since it's Weiss. And since this is Weiss, Ruby knows the true weight behind those words and it settles around her like a blanket— or an arm around her waist. A great comfort.

"Thanks, Weiss." Ruby's voice comes out like a whisper, reverent. "For the coffee. And..."

"And?" Weiss almost blinks at the intensity fueling Ruby's silver eyes.

"And I love you too."

The sudden forwardness puts Weiss off balance. They were just talking about coffee or they were just talking about not just coffee but this? This wasn't supposed to be spoken, at least not out loud. Isn't that why they've been talking about coffee like it's not just coffee all this time?

But then Weiss remembers that this is Ruby and Ruby always gets into the heart of matters. Always. And for Weiss who has prided herself with her plethora of words, she suddenly finds none.

No word or turn of phrase could ever epitomize this moment, this feeling, this promise.

So she doesn't reply— at least not in words.

Instead she's the one who initiates the action, the movement, the contact. Her other arm reaches over to meet where her first one rests, the half embrace has now come full circle. She may be holding tighter than she would be dared caught in but in this moment nothing else mattered.

It was in that silence that Ruby heard her answer.

And although Ruby is usually the one who initiates the contact, she doesn't mind being the one who reciprocates from time to time.

"You still nervous about going back home?" She asks after she settles deeper in the embrace, basking in affection and returning it tenfold.

Maybe if Weiss was asked that same question on some different day ago or to a different Weiss some time ago, she would have answered differently. But the Weiss that is today in this moment already has her answer set in her heart.

"You say that as if I'm not already home."

Weiss knows this, but Ruby? Ruby is taken by surprise. It's not that she doesn't know this to be true, it's just that hearing the words and seeing Weiss' lips move, and then connecting the two is such a foreign concept that she thinks she might have imagined it out of fatigue.

But the rosiness of Weiss' cheeks is too real.

"Pfft! That's so cheesy!" Ruby couldn't stop herself from giggling even if she wanted to.

Weiss huffs and pinches Ruby by the hip in retaliation. "I take it back."

"Nooo! No takebacks!" She whines and clings onto her now annoyed partner. "Weiss we love you too!"

When Grumpy Weiss only huffs again, Ruby tries to use more words to bring back Nice Weiss.

"I think that's pretty amazing! You get to take your home with you wherever you go!"

"Wherever I go?"

"Yeah! Because we're not going anywhere without you!"

Ruby's smile doesn't falter one bit, it never does when she's genuinely happy. Happiness can be so infectious sometimes. And sometimes, happiness is best felt when shared.

"I'm home. I'm finally home."

A home doesn't have to be a house or an isolated mansion. Sometimes a home can just be a beat up plane filled with seven beat up kids, a bird uncle and a sassy grandma.

Simply put, a home is wherever you are as long as your family, the people who genuinely love you, is with you.

"Welcome home."

* * *

 **A/N: MY GARDEN OF WHITE ROSES HAS BEEN WATERED!**

Volume 6 is definitely my favorite volume so far! Maybe ever! And this fic has been so much fun to write! But what really made me happy was getting to hear from you and even talk to some of you! Thanks for coming with me on this journey of a fic and sticking through till the end!

 _Special shoutout to the regular reviewers!_ **LogicalFallacies, iamking, Star-The-Writer, Cun, spookiestboi, KHARAKI TAKAN, RWBY phase, Raion Shinz, Villains84, Spyro.** I WOULD DIE FOR YOU (or write more whiterose) so hit up my inbox or summon me with a transmutation circle I guess.

 **Will I do another whiterose series fic like this for volume 7?** I can't promise you that just yet. It depends if the next one (hopefully Weiss arc) is just as good (I really hope they do her story arc justice too) then maybe.

Let's hope for the best then! And expect the worst! Because Jackass Schnee is out to get Weiss and Salem is out to get Ruby (and Neo and Cinder too but I'm more worried about the winged monkeys reference to wizard of oz). In other words, AAAAAAAAAA

 **If anyone ever mistakenly remembers anything from this fic as canon then I know this will be my greatest accomplishment in my shipping life. In my heart they are canon. Heartcanon.**

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I may or may not write more but until then, _thank me later!_


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